Looking with the eyes of your heart

Books written for children often offer adult-sized lessons. The only problem is that we adults only read children’s books if and when we read them to our children.

One favorite of mine is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic, The Little Prince. My favorite line from this gem of a book is, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” In the book, The Little Prince lives alone on a tiny planet, which is no bigger than a house. He owned three volcanoes, two active and one extinct. The Little Prince also owned a flower unlike any flower in all the galaxy.

The only problem with the plant was that it was very vain. The rose bragged that she was born the same moment as the sun and went on about how magnificent she was and how she was the only one of her kid in the entire galaxy. The Little Prince carefully cared for the little flower’s every needs, but he also became perturbed with the proud plant. Later he wished that he had judged the rose by her deeds, how she cast her lovely fragrance and radiance on his whole planet. But the Prince ran off from his planet and began to travel the galaxy. His travels eventually brought him to earth, where he found a garden filled with roses. His flower was not unique. The Little Prince felt sad. He knew his rose would be annoyed to learn that she was common.

It was just then that the Little Prince met a fox. The fox’s fondest wish was that the prince would tame him. He told the prince that to tame something was to establish ties with it. To be tamed was to become connected. The fox told the prince,

“’To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world…’

‘I am beginning to understand,’ said the little prince. ‘There is a flower…I think that she has tamed me…’”

The Little Prince patiently tamed the fox, coming at the same time each day. Each day they got closer and closer together until at last the fox was tamed and the Little Prince and the fox could play together. But the time was drawing near for the Little Prince to move on. The fox warned that he would cry when the Little Prince left. The prince said that being tamed had done the fox no good at all. The fox insisted that being tamed had indeed done him good. The fox then told the prince to go visit the roses a second time and then return to see him one last time.

When he looked again at the roses, he realized that they were roses like thousands of other roses. They were not his rose. The Prince told the roses, “You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world.”

“You are beautiful, but you are empty,” he went on. “One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you—the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under a glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind a screen; because it is for her that I have killed caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.”

When the Prince went back to the fox to say goodbye, the fox gave the Prince his secret saying, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” The fox went on to tell the Prince that, “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

I have not retold anything near the whole story of The Little Prince and it would be well worth your time to read it if you have enjoyed this sample. Notice for now how closely this section parallels the Bible’s story of God’s love for us.

God became human and lived among us. Then as a human, God extended that same care through Jesus that God had always had for the creation. Jesus looked with compassion on the people around him. He brought harsh words of condemnation for those who saw themselves as righteous in their own eyes. But for the hurting people he saw, Jesus brought hope and healing.

The care and attention God has wasted for us is what makes each of us special. You are not just like everyone else. To the God who formed you, the God who loves you, the God who listens when you grumble or boast or say nothing at all, you are unique and special.

It may sound meaningless to say “You are unique and special, just like everybody else,” but it’s true. Yet if you look with the eyes of this world, you may miss the care God has lavished on you. Like the Little Prince, we have to look using the eyes of our hearts. For what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Know in your heart that God has wasted immense amounts of time on you out of love. For you are unique and special.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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