You are the Apple of His Eye

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  --John 3:16

Let's start with a simple syllogism:  God is Love (1 John 4:8 says "The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.").  God loves you (see John 3:16 above).  Therefore, you are loved by God, by the One who is defined by and is the definition of true love.

The Bible says that you are the apple of His eye.  Really.  In Psalm 17:8, David prays to God, saying, "Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings." In Zechariah 2:8, the prophet is talking about the people of God, and he says, "For this is what the Lord Almighty says: After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you--for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye." And in the King James version of Lamentations 2:18, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of those who truly seek the Lord with all their hearts, and says, "Their heart cried out to the Lord: O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; give thyself no rest, let not the apple of thine eye cease."

So what does it mean to be the apple of somebody's eye?  According to the Urban Dictionary, it means one's favorite person; the one you love most.  "In Old English, the pupil of the eye (the round, dark center) was called the 'apple'. It was thought that the pupil was a round object much like an apple (a piece of fruit).  When you look at someone, their reflection appears in your pupil.  So if someone is 'the apple of your eye', he or she is someone that you look at a lot and enjoy seeing." (reference citation: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=apple+of+my+eye)

God made you.  When He made the earth, the plants, and all the animals, He said "It is good."  But when He made man and woman, He said, "It is very good."  There are not so many people in the world today that He cannot see them all.  He gazes at each one of us, as an inventor would hold up and admire his greatest work; like a collector would study a fine gold piece in her collection.  Think about that the next time you hear the phrase, "God watches over us."  He is not a distant king in an ivory tower, who may glance out of His window at all His subjects.  He is not an evil warlord in a guard tower, making sure we are all in line.  He knows each one of us individually, intimately, indiscriminately.  Our image is etched in His mind, because we are the apple of His eye.

Another meaning ascribed to the phrase is found from another web source, Answers.com.

The term was originally used in the bible and it was used to signify someone of great worth 'whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye', someone who was very precious. The 'apple of your eye' is the iris or center of the eye. If someone were to touch the apple of your eye it would be very painful and so it is protected by the eyelid. The biblical imagery is that we are the apple of his eye and God is the eyelid who protects us. Shakespeare also used the term with this meaning in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' to again show something as most precious - 

Flower of this purple dye, 
Hit with Cupid's archery, 
Sink in apple of his eye 

Modern usage of this idiom usually refers to something that is especially beloved. (citation reference http://www.answers.com/Q/How_did_the_expression_%27apple_of_my_eye%27_come_about).

So here we get the sense that God wants to protect us as a part of His body.  1 Corinthians chapter 12 reference Christ's followers in the Church as having different functions flowing from their disparate talents and make-up, much like the different parts of the body.  In this case, the pupil or center of the eye is something that a body would naturally defend and protect.  So in our anthropomorphisms that help us understand God better, if we are the center of God's eye, He would naturally want to keep us out of harm's way.  He would cover us with His hand, and might even rub us raw to remove any foreign object that irritates us or makes us less effective.

Finally, there is a sense from the origin of the phrase that we are to be students of Him, as well.  We are to gaze upon Him as He gazes upon us.  According to Wikipedia, "The original Hebrew for this idiom, in all but Zechariah 2:8, was 'iyshown 'ayin (אישון עין), and can be literally translated as "Little Man of the Eye." This is a reference to the tiny reflection of yourself that you can see in other people's pupils. Other KJV translations of the word 'iyshown include dark and obscure, as a reference to the darkness of the pupil.

This Hebrew idiom is surprisingly close to the Latin version, pupilla, which means a little doll, and is a diminutive form of pupus, boy, or pupa, girl (the source also for our other sense of pupil to mean a schoolchild.) It was applied to the dark central portion of the eye within the iris because of the tiny image of oneself, like a puppet or marionette, that one can see when looking into another person's eye." 

(citation reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_of_my_eye).

So the origin of the word "pupil", or student, comes from the same root word as "eyeball". We are the students of His vision, His outlook on humanity. We are to "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (1 Timothy 2:15). As we learn more about how God sees others, we can be more like Him. We can truly be the "apple of His eye" as we see as He sees, and as we watch His work in our world.In summary, then, He loves us dearly; He watches us intently; He protects us fiercely; and we can now see as He sees. Isn't God good? You are, indeed, the apple of His eye. Don't forget it!