Michelangelo's Eyes

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Most of us have heard of Michelangelo, the Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet. And most of us have heard of the Sistine chapel. Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling of the Sistine chapel.  The project took from 1508 to 1512. 

Halfway through the process, about 1510, Michelangelo started to develop an eye condition where he needed to raise items, documents in particular,  above his eyes to be able to read it, because his eyes were so used to looking upwards that he wasn’t able to focus at regular levels. So after years of painting in dim light, from a certain angle, and with his head in a certain position, his eyes came to a point where it would only function fully when he was looking up.

In correlation, those of us who find ourselves in Christ are being conditioned to look upward constantly. Hebrews 12 says “fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." The world see this as a handicap, and may call us nearsighted or blind, but for us placing our gaze on Jesus is a beautiful thing.

So often we keep our eyes off of Jesus and we end up falling and tripping over our surroundings. We stumble, much like Peter on that tumultuous sea, because we don't keep our eyes on HIM.  But once our gaze returns on Him, our priorities are realigned, we put fear in its place, and we settle our inner storms.

So the lesson from Michelangelo, his eye condition, and the Sistine Chapel is this:  Our eyes must grow so accustomed to looking up at Jesus that we see other things poorly and incompletely when it’s not seen in relationship to Jesus. Let us continue to look up and have our gaze eternally fixed on Christ.



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