psalm 17: the little man in the eye - 33rd week Wednesday 2017

Today we read psalm 17. Here we find the famous prayer pleading God for protection - keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me under the shadow of your wings.The apple of our eye is the pupil. It is called the pupil of the eye because if you look into the eyes of another person you will see in that dark portion of the eye a tiny image of yourself – it is referred to as the pupilla or in English pupilla means a little doll, the little man in the eye.If you also notice, as St. Thomas Aquinas did, “the pupil of the eye is kept with diligence because nothing which can wound it is permitted to draw near.”
When the cornea is stimulated by a foreign object, there occurs an involuntary reflex or blinking at a rapid rate of 0.1 seconds, immediately covering the eyes. And not just the eyelids but the whole body it seems is hardwired to deflect anything that may harm the eyes, to protect the pupilla or the little man in the eye - for example the hands would automatically cover the eyes when an object is heading towards it, or the head would dock by reflex to avoid being hit,.
Keep me as the apple of your eyes. When God looks at you there is a tiny version of you in God’s pupil, that’s the little man in the eyes of God, and that would be the kind of protection you will receive from God for no part of the body is more precious, more tender, and more carefully guarded than the eye.
That is how we are cared for by God.