The Apple of God's Eye; 1st spark

1st Spark:  The Apple of His Eye

“He shielded them and cared for them, guarding them as the apple of His eye. Deuteronomy 32:10”

“Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 17:8”

“Keep my commands and live, my teaching as the apple of your eye. Proverbs 7:2”

“Whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye. Zechariah 2:12”

Show the children a freshly polished apple and tell them that you know God has hidden something in the apple; He has hidden something in every apple! Tell them you know it is there as well as you know that the sun gives us daylight. Tell them that there are lots of things like that; things that we know and believe but we really can’t see: air, love, electricity, gravity, the pull of the moon and knowing that the sun is still shining even though we don’t see it at night. You can think of many other examples I’m sure. We see the effects of these things even though we can’t see the forces. Tell them God is like that; God is love and we experience God and His love through others, in ourselves, and in our world.

Cut the apple crosswise. Be amazed at the star. Show the star around to everyone. God said we are the apple of His eye and that whoever touches us, touches the apple of His eye. What did He mean? First let’s think about what the “apple of one’s eye” means. The black spot of our eye is called the pupil. When we are students we are also called pupils. The word pupil comes from the Latin word pupus or pupa meaning boy or girl, or pupillus- orphan. It really means “little doll” which refers to the tiny reflection that you can see in a person’s pupil. And that reflection is referred to as the “apple of one’s eye.”

Can you see my reflection in my grandson's eyes?

◊ The next paragraph is more information for you; you may or may not want to use it in your lesson. It would depend on the ages of the children and/or the time available.

What is the apple of an eye? I have heard that when the term was first used, the pupil, the black opening in the center of the iris through which light passes to the retina, was thought to be a solid, round object. It was called an “apple” because apples were common spherical objects. Sight, being very precious, made it logically the one thing referred to as a metaphor for something or someone most precious. Therefore if someone was extremely precious to another, they might say the person was “the apple of their eye.” But God, having made us and being omniscient, knew that the pupil was a hole for letting in light. If He used this analogy for us it was, I believe, for this moment; for children to be amazed at His choice of words for us and His great care for us.

Tell the children some little bit about how protected our eyes are. There are bones around our eyes, eyelashes to help protect our eyes and involuntary (and voluntary) reflexes for blinking and shielding our eyes. If something comes at us, or we fall, our eyes automatically close and the bones will be hit first while our eyes are protected and most of the time kept safe.

If we are the apple of God’s eye, that means He is going to protect us, , care for us and keep things from damaging us even when we are hit with awful things because He shield’s us.

I have a question for you to think about. When God looks at us, does He see His reflection in our eyes, and do we look at Jesus so intently that we are able to see ourselves in His eyes?

One more question; why did God put the star in the apple for us to find? What is the connection between the star in the apple and us being the apple of God’s eye? There was another star that we all know about...that star that lead the wise men to baby Jesus.  Perhaps the star in the apple was put there for us to find in order to tell the story of our being the apple of God's eye and thereby leading someone to Jesus.  Honestly though, I believe God put the star in the apple to remind us that He is starry-eyed over us!