His Eye On The Sparrow

When I was a little girl, we would visit my grandparents in Virginia. My father grew up there, and our visits were a real treat. My grandparents were wonderful people. They had a life on a farm, and our life looked very different living in the city.

My grandmother would walk every morning to the barn to milk their two cows. She carried her milk pail, and she would sing songs. I skipped along and listened to her melodies.

I never forgot the songs she happily shared along the way. One was the hymn “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” The lyrics of this song would one day be a source of healing for me.

We all go through hard times throughout our lives. Some are more difficult than others. Each season of life brings joy, sadness, and sometimes new life or the loss of a loved one.

In one season of my life, I experienced all of those things at once. It was a very challenging time for us.

We had moved to a new city, and right before moving into our new home, I miscarried our baby. The sadness and loss were devastating. A couple of weeks later, we got a phone call that my younger sister had passed away from a heart aneurysm. She left three children under the age of five. Her newborn baby was only ten days old.

Sometimes, when you are a strong person who people can count on, there are many who will pull from your strength. As you can imagine, there were many who needed that. Being pulled in different directions left me exhausted. My husband and two children needed me too.

There were many more things that I was struggling with at that time, and I was losing my faith.

A couple of months later, God began to show me how His eyes were truly on us. I went to look out in the backyard. I stood at the door, and I was surprised to see hundreds of birds eating the leftover bread we threw out after Thanksgiving.

In that moment, I was watching God provide for those helpless birds. It was then that God reminded me that His eye is on the sparrow, and if He could care for them, He would surely take care of me. I cried, and then I understood that He had been there the whole time. I just needed reminding.

The next year, we had our little rainbow baby. God’s eye was on our little sparrow the whole time.

Today, when I see a flock of birds, I thank God for how He watches over us. God’s eye truly does see us, and he will surely take care of you.

“His Eye is on the Sparrow.”
Written in 1905

Kathy Johnson