Talk about precision cameras! I want to tell you, we’re certainly provided with one – our eye “camera”. And it’s equipped depth perspective. Because we have two eyes instead of one, we can tell how far off an object is, or how near. We can tell if an object is moving away from us or coming closer. We would certainly be in plenty of trouble without this ability. We would be bumping into doors, falling down stairs, being hit with various objects or missing our mouth when we eat. Thank God for two eyes!
Did you ever consider how wonderfully the eyes are protected? You see, while they are set right in front of the head where they might be easily injured, they’re safe because they’re indented. Seven interlocking bones provide a perfect protective socket. Then, over the eyes, to catch dust and ward off perspiration are small hair brushes called eyebrows and eyelashes. Some of you may have thought they were just a thing of beauty, but no, they’re primarily utilitarian. But, we must admit they are quite decorative as well.
Then, in each eye there is a marvelously efficient windshield cleaning apparatus. Each time you blink, the eyelid closes, but also a thin stream of special antiseptic washes “the windows of our soul.” And the tears with the dust pass down by means of a special duct into the nose where the dust is collected, later to be blown forth.
These things are interesting, but we bow in absolute wonder when we consider the amazing composition of the eye. To be absolutely truthful, there are many things we do not know even in this day of investigation and learning. But what we do know causes us to gasp in wonder. For instance, there is a most efficient, self-adjusting lens. In less time than it takes to tell it, your eye perfectly adjusts to near and far, and back again. You can look at a plane a mile off in the sky and your eye immediately focuses. Then, quickly look at your newspaper two feet distant and your eye instantly accommodates. Your pupils, too, are most apt ones. Their duty is constantly to regulate and protect your eyes to degrees of light. With bright light they swiftly contract so that the delicate mechanism behind them may be protected. In dim light they open wide. I wonder who arranged all these things. We know, of course.
Or just considering the physical properties of the eyes, they’re wonderful. Seven sets of muscles placed at strategic points automatically turn the eyes to any desired position swiftly, quietly and efficiently. Over the system flows a constant stream of specially prepared lubricant making the operation beautifully effective.
The retina, which is the living plate at the rear of the eye, is filled, and I do mean filled, with light sensitive rods and cones which in reality are nerve ends. They say that there are over 100,000,000 of these nerve ends in each eyes. Some are for color, some for distance, some for shape and some for size. Attached to these cones are nerve cables, multitudes of them (338,000), which carry the light impulse, or what we call the pictures of what the eyes are seeing, swiftly to the brain.
The retina of the eye is really part of the brain. Next to blood and sperm cells, the retinal cells are the smallest in the body. Magnified a million times, they would look something like a table covered with upright matchboxes with the tips upward. Seeing is done something like the process of making pictures. It’s all with points of light. Only with pictures we use about 50 dots per centimeter, while the eye uses 3,500.
Truly, the eye is marvelous. On the retinal chessboard there are more than 100,000 fields upon which to move back and forth. The cones, of course, are for daylight; the rods for night. And, in creatures such as chickens, which God intended to be day-creatures, we find only cones. And in night birds, such as owls and bats, we find only rods.
The eyelids move together at 6 second intervals throughout life. That totals altogether approximately a quarter-million times in life.
What a wealth of beauty is open to our souls through our eyes. All of God’s creative glory can be viewed. The sunsets, the blue, blue sky, the grandeur of the mountains and the canyons. What a blessing is ours to be able to see. God fashioned our eyes and no one is quite so blind as those who fail to see Him.
William W. Orr, from his book, How We May Know God Is
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