Look

I love the old hymn "Turn your eyes upon Jesus."  I really love that hymn!  Here is the chorus:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His Glory and Grace.

It was a favorite song for my mom as well.  We sang it at her funeral.  It has a tremendous amount of personal meaning to me.  I used it as a lullaby for each of my children.  Every time the babies would hear that song you could see them calm down and relax.  It worked like that for my mom as she suffered from dementia.  As she drew close to death, I would sing that chorus to her and you could see her physically relax.  As I walked through that dark time in my life, I hummed the song often to myself because it reminded me to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus.

The author and composer of the song is Helen H. Lemmel who lived from 1864 until 1961.  In addition to being known as a brilliant singer and musician, Mrs. Lemmel was also widely recognized as a woman with remarkable literary ability. She wrote more than five hundred hymns and poems.  The inspiration for this hymn came from Hebrews 12:1-2

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I've been thinking about these verses this week as I am in the midst of a Bible study on the book of Hebrews.  This week, yup, chapter 12.  There are a gazillion sermons that could be preached from these two verses.  They are so full it makes my head spin.  But as I pondered verse two:  "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God," I found an amazing truth: 

The joy set before him.

What was the "joy set before him?"  I don't know all the answers, but I know one.  He knew that at the completion of his work on earth, man could be reconciled to God through him.  The "joy set before him?"  Me!  He was thinking about the joy of having a relationship with me!  He thought about you, too.  His very heart was to reconcile each of us to God, to himself.

Jesus fixed his eyes on the joy set before him so I could fix my eyes on Jesus.  Go ahead, I dare you to look.  In fact, stare.  Fix your eyes. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim.