'His Eye is on the Sparrow'

Church of Christ in Red Oak ~ 2633 Uhl Road ~ 10 a.m. Sundays / 6:30 pm Wednesdays

As you read along in the Bible, one of the greatest truths that you will come across is that of the providence of God. I’ve long felt that “providence” is the most important word not in the Bible, at least not in the Bible referring to God. In the KJV, Luke uses the word in Acts to refer to an earthly king.

But the powerful concept of providence doesn’t relate to an earthly king’s watchful eye.

No, it looks up to the heavenly king, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Should you start reading through the Bible to begin a new year, as many do here in January, you do not read far before you begin to see that God is watching. That’s as simple a way as I know to put it. Even then, His providence goes beyond that. The Lord does not merely watch. He watches, then He works out the details of our lives according to His will, His plan. He synergizes all things to work for good for those who love the Lord, the promise of Romans 8:28.

        In your January Bible reading, you'll see that the Lord orchestrates events in our lives faithfully, and the truth is reinforced more than ever by the time you get to the famous story of Joseph.

        “I cannot tell you what your dream means,” Joseph says to Pharaoh when the king calls him in to interpret his two-fold dream, “But God can tell you what it means and set you at ease” (Gen. 41:16).

        That great lesson is only an extension of earlier events in Joseph’s life when he is first cast into prison, and the writer gives this small tidbit: “The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed” (Gen. 39:23).

         Should you co-read the Old and New Testaments, you'll find abundant examples of providence early in the gospel of Matthew. In perhaps the greatest verse we’ll ever read regarding the Lord’s watchfulness, the Lord lays out the truth:

“Not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows” (Matt. 10:29-31 NLT).

         In 1905, a Canadian-American songwriter must have paused a long time at those verses and pondered their depth and power before she wrote the song, “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” The song’s origin was simple, as often is the case with the greatest of musical pieces. Civilla Martin told of how she and her husband, a minister, often visited a church friend who spent her life in a wheelchair. One day Mrs. Martin’s husband remarked how impressed he was that she maintained a buoyant attitude despite her inability to walk. Mrs. Doolittle responded, simply, “His eye is on the sparrow, I know He watches me.”

         She could not have known, of course, that her simple statement of faith would inspire one of the greatest hymns of all. Few words surpass these:

         Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come? Why should my heart be lonely, And long for heav’n and home, When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He: His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me …

         Then the chorus: I sing because I’m happy—I sing because I’m free—For His eye is on the sparrow, And I know He watches me.

         The soulful sound that accompanies the lyrics cannot help but build within us a feeling of hope and faith as we raise our voices together in singing the great hymn.

         Thinking of the hymn, I think back to 1989 when I first stopped to write memories from the summer of 1973—along with events prior to that time and the long road of memories after the summer. I think the thought that the Lord's watchful eye and unseen hand are always guiding us in our lives overwhelmed my mind more than any other from the time we first wrote the manuscript in ‘89, then let it sit and marinate for 35 years before rewriting it from scratch, reliving the events yet again beginning back in 2023.

         Even in this moment, I marvel at how the Lord guided us with every step. As another songwriter writes, “Each step I take, our Savior goes before me.” So true.

         I thought of this theme as I still think back to the story of ‘73 that we shared here for the better part of three years. I can still see the young man of sixteen, almost seventeen, driving out to a brick job just across the Georgia line into Alabama on June 4, 1973, on a cloudy Monday morning; and I can almost feel the emotions at the end as the same young man prepares to take that same road to a different period in life, to another era. As always, the young man in that story had no idea what lay ahead. 

To analyze just for a moment what many of you shared with us, what I think the young man must have realized then—and he surely realizes now—is that the Lord led him as He leads all of us down that road, both in his looking ahead at the long stretch of unknown highway to his looking back over that long stretch again half a century later. The many years and experiences since—all the towering mountain-top experiences, and the struggles way down in the deepest of valleys—did nothing to diminish the fact that the Lord faithfully goes before us and comes behind us, directing events in our lives according to His will and His providence.

In short, we come to realize with the songwriter of 1905, the Lord’s eye is ever on the sparrow.

January 19, 2025