His Eye is on the Sparrow

By Rick Marschall
Monday Morning Music Blog

CBN.com – Sixteen years ago, when my wife Nancy was waiting for her heart transplant, our family was led to start a ministry on the Heart Failure floor of Temple University Hospital. Many stories, many salvation decisions, many laughs and tears, many healings, and many mysteries — the sweet God-mysteries — came from the six years we wound up serving patients and their families.

One guy, a rough-cut, white-haired old Italian laborer from New Jersey, was gruff or friendly, depending on his whim. It was usually gruff when we invited him to makeshift services. Vinnie could often be found on the treadmill — I began to suspect that he didn't need a heart transplant, but was on the floor in some witness-protection program. Some weeks the treadmill was in the solarium, where we held our services, so he occasionally hung around the back door or sat by the window, looking out over Philadelphia, waiting for us all to leave.

Vinnie finally did get his heart. The donor program found a perfect match… on paper. As sometimes happened with heart transplants we witnessed and lived through, "everything" was right, yet Vinnie suffered a stroke on the operating table. He made the usual return to the floor for recuperation, but burly Vinnie started wasting away. He couldn't move most of his body; he could barely speak; he couldn't get out of bed, much less hop on the old treadmill.

One Sunday I stopped in Vinnie's room before our service in the solarium. I small-talked and finally said I had to leave. "Are you going to have the music?" he managed to ask — that's what he called our services. And I took a cue from the look in his eye. I kidded him: "Hey, buddy, don't you go anywhere. Church is coming to you this morning." Everyone who had gathered in the solarium, Nancy and her sermon notes, my kids, even strangers and staff that morning, crowded into Vinnie's room, spilling out into the hallway. Music and monitors somehow fit in, too, all around his bed.

We opened with prayer, and, in the quiet room, I asked Vinnie if he had a special request. He managed to whisper a gravelly: "Yeah. Can you sing that sparrow song you always sing?"

"His Eye Is On the Sparrow" is based on the sweet promise of Matthew 10:29-31. We often worry about our circumstances – but are we not worth more than sparrows? Even those small birds cannot fall to earth without Father God noticing… and caring. How much more does our Heavenly father love us?

Do YOU ever sing this song, or the joy behind its meanings? Do you always remember the promise? Old Vinnie didn't make it long after that bedside music that he reached out for. But the tears on his face showed that he was at peace with the One who, ultimately and in His loving way, watched over him.

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If big problems or "little things" loom up this week… remember the words of Jesus and, here, the voices of Selah: blessings that will bring you through.

Click: "His Eye Is On the Sparrow"

Do you need to know that God's eye is always watching over you? Learn more.

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Rick Marschall is the author of 65 books and hundreds of magazine articles in many fields, from popular culture (Bostonia magazine called him “perhaps America’s foremost authority on popular culture”) to history and criticism; country music, television history, biography, and children’s books.

Rick’s in-depth biography of Theodore Roosevelt, BULLY!, illustrated entirely by vintage political cartoons, was published by Regnery History of Washington, D.C. Rick also edits the e-zine reissue of Harper's Weekly -- The Civil War Years.

He is a former political cartoonist, editor of Marvel Comics, and writer for Disney comics. His anthologies of vintage cartoons have won several awards in the US and Europe. For 10 years he has been active in the Christian field, writing devotionals; co-writing The Secret Revealed with Dr. Jim Garlow (FaithWords, 2007); and writing a biography of Johann Sebastian Bach for the “Christian Encounters” series for Thomas Nelson. Rick was on the editorial staff of the 1599 Geneva Bible Restoration Project (Tolle Lege Press, 2007). He was named Christian Writer of the Year by the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference in 2007. Learn more at www.mondayministry.com.