The Amish Voice 6
Do you realize that without our eyes you
would not be reading this now? Without
our eyes you would be unable to see any of
God’s creaton. Psalms 19:1 says:
The heavens declare the glory of God
and the frmament showeth His
handiwork.
God shows Himself to us, in part, by what
we see.
Your eyes work all the tme they are open. It
may seem automatc to you and I, but there
is a lot that goes on in your eyes that you
would miss if you lost them. They take in
lots of informaton — shapes, colors, move-
ments, and more. Then they send the infor-
maton to your brain, so the brain knows
what's going on outside of your body.
The eyelid protects the eye without you
thinking about it. When you step into bright
light, the eyelids squeeze together tghtly to
protect your eyes untl they can adjust to
the light. And if you move your fngers close
(but not too close!) to your friend's eyes,
they will blink. Your friend's eyelids shut
automatcally to protect the eye from possi-
ble danger. Also don't forget eyelashes. They
work with the eyelids to keep dirt and other
unwanted stuf out of your eyes.
The white part of the eyeball is called the
sclera (say: sklair-uh). The sclera is made of a
tough material and has the important job of
covering most of the eyeball.
Think of the sclera as your eyeball's outer
coat. Look very closely at the white of the
eye, and you'll see lines that look like tny
pink threads. These are blood vessels, the
tny tubes that deliver blood, to the sclera.
The pupil is the black circle in the center of
the iris, which is really an opening in the iris,
and it lets light enter the eye. To see how
this works, use a small fashlight to see how
your eyes or a friend's eyes respond to
changes in brightness. The pupils will get
smaller when the light shines near them and
they'll open wider when the light is gone.
These next parts are really cool, but you
can't see them with your own eyes! Doctors
use special microscopes to look at these
inner parts of the eye, such as the lens. Afer
light enters the pupil, it hits the lens. The
lens sits behind the iris and is clear and col-
orless. The lens' job is to focus light rays on
the back of the eyeball — a part called the
retna (say: ret-i-nuh).
The retna uses special cells called rods and
cones to process light. Just how many rods
and cones does your retna have?
Answer: We each have about 120 million
rods and 7 million cones — in each eye!
Rods see in black, white and shades of gray;
they tell us the form or shape that some-
thing has. Rods can't tell the diference be-
tween colors, but they are super-sensitve,
allowing us to see when it's very dark.
Cones, on the other hand, sense color and
they need more light than rods to work well.
Cones are most helpful in normal or bright
light. The retna has three types of cones.
Each cone type is sensitve to one of three
diferent colors — red, green, or blue — to
help you see diferent ranges of color.
Rods and cones process the light to give you
the total picture. You're able to see that
your friend has a black coat and is wearing a
straw hat while he leads a brown horse.
Think of the optc nerve as the great mes-
senger in the back of your eye. The rods and
cones of the retna change the colors and
shapes you see into millions of nerve mes-
sages. Then, the optc nerve carries those
messages from the eye to the brain! The
optc nerve serves as a high-speed tele-
phone line connectng the eye to the brain.
When you see an image, your eye
"telephones" your brain with a report on
what you are seeing so the brain can trans-
late that report into "cat," "apple," or
"bicycle," or whatever it is you see.
The eye has its own special bathing system
— tears! Above the outer corner of each eye
are glands, which make tears. Every tme
you blink your eye, a tny bit of tear fuid
comes out of your upper eyelid. It helps
wash away germs, dust, or other partcles
that don't belong in your eye.
Tears also keep your eye from drying out.
You can see the opening of your tear duct if
you very gently pull down the inside corner
of your eye. When you see a tny litle hole,
you've found the tear duct.
What a great God we have! He has taken so
much care in making just one part of us to
work perfectly and meet our needs. If He
cares this much about our body (and He
does!), how much more does he care about
our soul?
In 2 Peter 3:9 we read:
The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slack-
ness; but is longsufering to us-ward,
not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance.
The same God who took much tme in cre-
atng us, wants us to know Him beter so
that we may spend eternity together.
By Robert McCallum, Ashland OH
(419) 962-1515
Our Eyes: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
In this combinaton picture of before and afer, Claudio Paulo Pinto pops his eyeballs out
of their sockets, in Belo Horizonte, 210 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday,
Sept 16, 2006.
Pinto can pop his eyeballs about 3/8 inch out of their sockets, a natonal record for eye-
popping according to Rank Brasil, an organizaton modeled afer the Guinness Book of
World Records that lists Brazilian records. Pinto says he's been doing this since he was
nine years old and "it doesn't hurt a bit."