Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily. For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

Today our family is home with unexpected ice on the roads. School was cancelled and so I have had the luxury of sitting with the Lord for an extended time. In between I would try to accomplish some  house work and stopped by our back door to look out the window. I marveled as a group of birds searched for insects to feed on regardless of the winter scene…cold and dreary. I thought to myself “why would they come out in this.?” Then the most precious whisper I am so thankfully familiar with.. said..”they are sparrows.. remember the sparrows?” My heart lifted to search out the sparrows in His Word. Even as I write you I feel like I could burst into tears at His tenderness when we least expect it.

Psalm 102 gripped my heart as a familiar passage from a past season. Not because it had been something I had studied but because it seemed to be the exact emotions my heart cried silently in the past valley…both emotional and physical. In this moment I could relate to this little alone sparrow. As I took a look at the nature of sparrows I was intrigued to find that they are very social birds and are usually in flocks…so the Psalmist writing of the alone sparrow very well could allude to a deep loneliness. Yet while in the grip of our despair we must reach for the entire truth of what Christ beckons us to remember in the gospel of Matthew:

“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26) and “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29–31).

To mind came a past song I had recorded and most of the world knows well..”His Eye is On the Sparrow..” It was always one of my favorites. My heart wanted to know the heart of the writer…for as a writer myself with Christ I know something occurred to birth such a song. The song was originally written in 1905 by 2 songwriters and below was their inspiration:

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 sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free, For 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.

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