His Eye is on My Baby

If we've grown up in the church, at some point we've all sung that song, "His Eye is on the Sparrow", or we've at least heard the song. Do we care? That His eye is on the sparrow? Really? Do we consider it to be a viable truth in our lives? In our daily lives? In our Monday at 10:15 in the mornings?
This morning I was awakened afresh to that truth. Carly was in her high chair, the rest of us moving throughout the house trying to get the morning on a roll...when we hear her cough funny and then start to cry/scream. Did I mention she was safe and secure in her high chair? She couldn't get out and couldn't fall over? Did I mention that we were in and out of the kitchen keeping an eyeball on her? When we came running in to see what was the matter we quickly saw that she had thrown up. Which is weird for her. She never does that. As we got her out of the high chair to clean her up we saw WHY she had thrown up. Somehow she got her pudgy little fingers on a dime-size game-chip thingy and had swallowed it and/or choked on it. And the Lord, our Lord, our gracious and merciful and all-loving Lord who does not need us to ask before He decides to act, Lord, had His eye on her and saved her. He stuck His invisible finger down her throat and pulled that chip out and saved her. Because He can. Because He loves. Because that's just who He is. Instead of rushing off to the emergency room or worse, this morning I get to sit here with my cup of almost-cold coffee and blog while my baby is napping. Because His eye is constantly, never-ceasingly, watching me and mine. I didn't ask Him to. He just does. Because that's just who He is.
I have wondered why in the "Lord's prayer" Jesus doesn't get more specific about what He needs other than, "Give us this day, our daily bread." I know He wasn't just trying to be poetic. Or generic. What's up with that? Maybe ya'll have figured this out already and I'm just two steps behind the dance, but what came to mind today was this: Maybe the reason Jesus didn't get more specific in His model prayer was because He knew He didn't need to. The list of needs and petitions He had He didn't need to explain because the One who "is greater than our hearts" knows it anyway. He invites us to share the details but we don't need to. He already knows our needs greater than we do. And He is ever-so-watchful of each and every detail of our lives.
I've heard it said that prayer was not meant for our laundry-list of requests but rather for relationship; an invitation to grow closer to the Lord and join Him in partnership with His work. He doesn't require our prayer before He acts. Being the all-loving God He is, He is already working on our behalf. That became acutely true for me today. I'm reminded of what C.S. Lewis answered to the question of why he prayed so much for his wife, dying of cancer. And I'm paraphrasing here, "I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because the need flows out of me, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God, it changes me."

"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. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me." He's got His eye on you too, friend.