Vitamin D

My very nice neighbor works at a local natural health food store. She is very knowledgeable on vitamins and supplements, and so we have had several great conversations about what the kids and I may need. In one of those conversations we were discussing Vitamin D. What I'm about to share is not verbatim - simply my recollection of a conversation - and should not be used to diagnose or treat any illness, depression, or otherwise untoward condition. :)

She was saying that we all need at least 15 minutes of sunshine a day to get our dose of Vitamin D. And it's not just any old sunshine - but specifically sunshine to our eyeballs, without any UV blocking sunglasses. I found that interesting, and tucked it away in my brain in the "interesting info" file.

As I was running today, with the evening summer sun streaming through the trees and into my eyes, I remembered the conversation about Vitamin D. About how we need to get sunlight in our eyeballs in order to be healthy. And yet, any person who has ever had sunlight in her eyeballs knows that it's not the most pleasant experience. Yes, laying with our eyes closed on an air mattress at the lake on a hot summer day, with the sun beating down on our sun starved skin and radiating heat through our closed eye lids is delightful. But may I point out to you that this pleasant experience is not increasing your consumption of Vitamin D through the eyeballs?

Sun in my eyeballs makes me squint, look down, glance up and quickly look away. I can't gaze, I have to glimpse. And that's when I thought that perhaps Vitamin D is a little bit like God. We need to see Him with the eyeballs of our heart in order to be healthy people. (see Ephesians 1:18) We need to spend time each day in His presence, with our eyes open, seeing Him and seeing the world as He sees it. And yet, as we gaze at His glory, it is overwhelming and mind blowing. He is beyond comprehension and the longer we gaze, the more we are aware of the glaring nature of our own shortcomings. He brings us all we long for, and yet we can only handle it in little snippets.

May He increase our capacity to gaze upon His beauty - to receive His love.