His Eyes is on the sparrow

Early in the spring of 1905, my hus­band and I were so­journ­ing in El­mi­ra, New York. We con­tract­ed a deep friend­ship for a cou­ple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doo­lit­tle—true saints of God. Mrs. Doo­lit­tle had been bed­rid­den for nigh twen­ty years. Her hus­band was an in­cur­a­ble crip­ple who had to pro­pel him­self to and from his bus­i­ness in a wheel chair. De­spite their af­flict­ions, they lived hap­py Christ­ian lives, bring­ing in­spir­a­tion and com­fort to all who knew them. One day while we were vi­sit­ing with the Doo­lit­tles, my hus­band com­ment­ed on their bright hope­ful­ness and asked them for the se­cret of it. Mrs. Doo­lit­tle’s re­ply was sim­ple: “His eye is on the spar­row, and I know He watch­es me.” The beau­ty of this sim­ple ex­press­ion of bound­less faith gripped the hearts and fired the imag­in­a­tion of Dr. Mar­tin and me. The hymn “His Eye Is on the Spar­row” was the out­come of that ex­per­i­ence.

Civilla Martin

I've known the contemporary version of this hymn by Lauryn Hill through the movie Sister Act. It has nice tune, but what I didn't know that time was the words are even more exceptional.

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

“Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Sometimes I ask myself that, why should I feel discouraged? even though times are difficult, why do I let the shadows defeat me? Don't I have Jesus, the shining armor, a constant Friend of mine.

And most of the times, those written in the 3rd stanza are very true. When we are tempted, when clouds of affliction come, our songs, our praises turn to sighing, complaining, and it seems as if we have lost hope. Be thankful for through these trying times, we draw closer to Him, set free from our afflictions and most importantly we are reminded and assured that He is our only hope.

As christians, sometimes we forget that from our so many experiences, we felt and we knew God's guidance, God's leading our paths, God's constant care for us. But many times, we just forget and worry again. Help our unbelief, O God. Let us be assured always that Your Eyes is on the sparrow and You are watching over us.

And not forgetting the Refrain though. I like it very much. Very simple, very easy to sing, but can we at all times do that? I pray that God strengthens me so that I can. The more experience, the more struggle, in Him I can then sing :

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.