Golden HYMNS Of The FAITH : Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Everyone is born a king, and most people die in exile.

- Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900.

One bright morning, while exiting from a bedroom in our apartment, I noticed (from the corner of my eye) a most hideous-looking insect sitting on the floor in the doorway. It was black, about one inch (2.54 cm) long and appeared like some diabolical hybrid between a spider and a scorpion … a most ominous-looking little critter that made my blood run cold and my skin to crawl. I immediately turned toward our bedroom to fetch some semblance of a weapon (for self-defence) and also to get a few pages of newspaper to cover the insect while obliterating it, as I didn’t want to cause all kinds of unsavoury blood-spatter all over the place on the site of the slaughter that would make it difficult for us to clean afterwards, which sometimes can prove to be a more challenging ordeal than the threat of the living insect itself.

Now please don’t get me wrong … I know that insects, like other living organisms, were created with tremendous cosmic purpose as part of an important food-chain that checks the unbridled proliferation and spread of species in the wild to prevent all kinds of disorderly ‘urbanisation’ in Creation and ensure the proper balance of power in the natural Eco-system; I certainly am not from the old wives club that believes that flies, spiders, snakes, scorpions and hideous-looking insects like the one in my home were created by the Devil in a misguided and abortive effort to imitate the Grand Creator of all friendly, amiable and nice-looking living species, Jesus Christ. (As far as I am concerned, the Devil could not even create a cockroach with only one brain-cell even if his life depended on it, unless we propose to employ the word ‘create’ poetically, for certainly the Devil can ‘create’ [wreak] havoc wherever he goes). The only reasons I still spell the name of this master-fiend with a capital ‘D’ are threefold, i.e.:

- In South Africa we still adhere to the rule that proper nouns are to be spelt with a capital letter

- The vogue among some Christians to spell the name of our chief enemy with a lower case ‘d’ for Devil (or ‘s’ for Satan, as the case may be) is, in my pathetic little democratic opinion, an infantile psychological cop-out and totally unnecessary.
- At the cross of Calvary Jesus did not conquer a Mickey Mouse adversary, but a daunting enemy of formidable status and capacity; I thus refuse to play down His magnificent achievement by the employment of a lower case ‘d’ or 's' in my text.

Now the reader may wonder whether the intruder were not actually totally harmless, as it was sitting so inert and completely quiet and still, but rest assured, when a thing like that is sitting still, it is not contemplating its cousin's birthday or calculating the odds of winning the local lottery; it probably is developing an intricate blueprint for some sinister manoeuvre with which it can later, when it's dark, approach its human patron without getting zapped too soon in the process. After all, experts do not tell us for nothing that one is always within at least two metres from a spider and that one will, in the average lifetime, swallow at least twelve spiders live whilst sleeping.
So, I was taking no chances, and I thus proceeded to cover my hapless adversary with a few pages of a folded newspaper and, with the aid of an old, obsolete but severely modified hairbrush, entered the combat-zone with the zeal and energy of a medieval knight on steroids, with arms flailing and wielding my lethal weapon with deadly, terrible effect. The poor chap simply had had no chance … not even a real giant spider-zilla would have survived such a brutal onslaught and live to tell the tale. I was amazed at my Viking-like prowess, probably some throwback to my formidable (mixed) Dutch, German and French ancestry. Those blows that fell on the macabre object of my wrath were delivered with the tenacity of an ancient Dutch seafarer, the engineering precision of a German auto-manufacturer and the unbridled zeal of an amorous French suitor.

Now, as I was a little hesitant to lift the newspaper to inspect the damage I had inflicted, my wife was the first to lift the paper from the floor: “What have you got here? What’s this newspaper doing in the middle of the floor?” And there it was … a simple plastic toy that had fallen from some grandchild’s lucky dip or something. It was an ordinary plastic ant, as harmless as a rubber duck under heavy anaesthesia.
In retrospect, I had made the embarrassing mistake of:

- not identifying the object correctly and mistaking a harmless toy for a lethal, venomous insect

- taking my eyes off the issues that really mattered and expending precious time and energy on fighting and demolishing an already dead, harmless adversary

- Taking my eyes of Jesus and focusing on an imaginary threat of extremely small, if not zero, significance.

The Bible says:

Hebrews_12:2 looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (ASV, www.e-sword.net).

In the midst of wars, crime, pestilence, economic hardship, natural disasters and terrible catastrophes coming over the planet, the only message of hope that still carries weight is the one that reads: Turn tour eyes upon Jesus; Look full into His wonderful face; And the things of earth, will grow strangely dim … in the light of His glory and grace!

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Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

(Helen H. Lemmel, 1864-1961)

O soul, are you weary and troubled?

No light in the darkness you see?

There’s light for a look at the Savior,

And life more abundant and free!

Thru death into life everlasting

He passed, and we follow Him there;

Over us sin no more hath dominion ‒

For more than conq’rors we are!

His word shall not fail you ‒ He promised;

Believe Him, and all will be well;