A House of Prayer for All Nations
Reflections

The Wise Man Has Eyes in His Head

· editor
In short: Drawing on a verse from Ecclesiastes, this short essay uses the vivid image of someone navigating a dark room to explore how human beings cope with uncertainty and helplessness. The central message is simple and direct: when darkness persists and we are desperate for something we cannot find on our own, the only real response is to cry out — to God — and wait for the light to be turned on from the outside.

“The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness — yet I also perceived that one fate befalls them all.” (Ecclesiastes 2:14)

Imagine a room — dark, pitch black. A person walks in and begins to move through it. How many times will he stumble? How many things will he knock over along the way? Here he doesn’t notice the radiator cord hanging down; there he doesn’t see the tablecloth trailing along the floor…

So what does a person actually do when he has no choice but to remain in the dark? First of all, he does not move quickly. At most he inches forward slowly, feeling his way, but he does not rush. It is as simple as that: in the dark, you don’t charge ahead. You don’t make hasty decisions. You don’t strike out in bold new directions.

But what if the darkness goes on for a long time? What then?

The truth is, there is nothing to do but cry out for help. And the deeper the darkness — especially when we urgently need something that lies somewhere within it — the only option is to shout, and sometimes even to scream outright, so that someone on the outside will hear and come to the rescue, and turn on the light.

I trust you already understand who it is we mean — the One we must cry out to when we are desperate for help inside that great darkness.