What Does “Apple of My Eye” Mean? One Very Red Apple and a Curious Phrase
This story began with a very clean patio, a very old metal red table and chairs, and one unripe green apple that had no idea what was coming.
The day before, I had spent five hours pressure washing our large concrete patio, and I do mean LARGE.
By Sunday morning, I was outside with my coffee enjoying the fruits of my labor.
Ahhhhh.
So clean.
So nice.
Blue sky.
A calm breeze.
Birds chirping.
Bunny nearby.
And then I noticed the peeling red paint on the patio furniture.
One Can of Red Paint
The table and chairs had definitely seen better days.
The table is worn and held together in places with ties. It will not be making a cross-country move with us someday.
But while I was sitting there looking at it, I remembered something.
I might have a can of leftover red spray paint in the garage.
I went looking.
There it was.
A can left from painting the set about three years ago, with absolutely no indication of how much might still be inside.
Turns out: quite a bit.
I moved the chairs into the grass because, should I accidentally paint the lawn, I own a lawn mower.
Problem solved.
I painted the front-facing worn places on the table and chairs, including the ties helping hold parts of the table together.
Red ties are considerably less noticeable on a red table.
The old set suddenly looked respectable again.
Worthy of being on its cleaned patio.
I finished before 9 a.m., then did something I had never done before.
I went to church on the patio.
Bunny’s dad had gone to church in person, while I stayed outside with my freshly cleaned concrete, blue skies, birds, breeze and Bunny.
It was lovely.
And that should have been the end of the project.
It wasn’t!
And Then I Looked at the Apples
While listening to the sermon, another thought arrived.
I had red paint.
I had a tree full of green apples.
It was early August, so the apples were exactly as they should be: not ripe yet and still really green.
What if there were just enough paint left to make ONE apple a shiny apple-red?
Only the side we could see from the home office window and back door, of course.
I wouldn’t tell Dad.
Eventually, he would look outside and discover that one apple had apparently skipped August and gone directly to autumn.
This delighted me way more than it probably should have.
So I chose the strategic apple that caught my eye and whimsically intended to catch someone else’s eye - Dad’s.
I sprayed.
And sprayed.
And then the can stopped.
Completely empty.
It was coughing air.
There had been exactly enough paint to cover about half of one apple.
Not one drop more.
Which, frankly, made the whole thing funnier.
Proof That the Apple Has a Green Side
From its starring angle, my apple looks remarkably convincing.
Bright red.
Shiny.
Really shiny.
Possibly quite proud of itself.
Turn it around, though, and there is the evidence.
Green apple.
Red paint.
Half a transformation.
I took a photograph of that side too, because every ridiculous story deserves documentation.
Naturally, It Needed Rain
At this point I had mowed the grass, cleaned the mower and hosed things down.
Surely I was finished now.
Nope.
I looked at the painted apple and had one more idea.
What if I sprayed water into the tree so the apple would have little “rain” droplets on it for the photograph?
So I did.
The sun caught the water.
The bright red apple gleamed among its green August neighbors.
And I stood there thoroughly entertained by my own nonsense.
Sometimes you really do have to make your own fun.
Then Came the Phrase
Looking at that apple eventually led me somewhere I hadn’t expected to go at all:
“the apple of my eye.”
I’ve heard the expression all my life.
But why an apple?
Why an eye?
And how did a phrase about an eye become such an affectionate way of describing someone we treasure?
That question sent me wandering into word history, dictionaries and Scripture.
Which is how a patio-cleaning project became a Curious Phrase.
Around here, apparently, that happens.
What Does “Apple of My Eye” Mean?
To call someone the “apple of your eye” means that person is especially precious to you, someone you love, treasure or hold particularly dear.
In my case, that’s a basket full of apples.
The phrase has very old roots. Online Etymology Dictionary traces “apple of one’s eye” back to Old English, when the “apple” referred to the pupil, which was once imagined as a small, round solid body.
That surprised me.
Somewhere along the way, an expression for the pupil of the eye became a way of describing someone deeply cherished.
I love that progression:
Something precious to the eye became someone precious to the heart.
“Apple of the Eye” in the Bible
The phrase also appears in Scripture.
This is so cool when I discover these kinds of beginnings.
In Psalm 17, David is praying for God’s protection.
“Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,”
That makes the imagery especially vivid to me.
Think about how instinctively we protect our eyes. We blink. We turn away. We shield them.
So when I read this verse, I picture something closely watched, carefully protected and precious.
Blue Letter Bible’s Hebrew lexicon identifies the word translated here as referring to the pupil or ball of the eye, with the vivid underlying sense of the “little man of the eye.”
Maybe This Apple Isn’t Finished Yet
As I looked at the photographs, I began seeing them differently.
Not simply as evidence that I painted an apple red on a Sunday morning for no sensible reason.
I could see the beginning of an image.
Maybe even a greeting card.
One shiny red apple.
A tree of not-yet-ripe green apples.
A phrase about someone treasured.
At that point, the finished card didn’t exist.
I didn’t know exactly what it would say.
And I rather liked that.
Sometimes an image in my mind’s eye sends me looking for its story.
And every now and then, life hands me the story first.
This time life handed me an apple.
I added the paint.
And before the day was over, the apple became a card.
Who’s the Apple of Your Eye?
Maybe it’s your spouse.
Your child.
Your grandchild.
A dear friend.
Someone whose face changes yours when they walk into the room.
Someone you instinctively want to protect, encourage and remind:
You matter enormously to me.
That’s one reason old phrases survive.
The words may be ancient, but the human feeling inside them isn’t.
Wander a Little Farther
If curious phrases make you wonder too, wander through more Curious Phrases in the Studio Journal.
And if you’re trying to turn affection, gratitude or encouragement into words for someone you care about, visit What to Write for message ideas you can borrow, combine and make your own.
The apple card?
It happened.
Visit You’re the Apple of My Eye Greeting Card to see how one unusually red August apple became a Scatter Joyfulness keepsake.
Where will you Scatter Joyfulness today?
