Lately I feel as though God is teaching me some valuable lessons through an unexpected avenue: children's music. I've been playing and singing Christian songs for Camden, and I truly believe it has been just as good for me as it is for him, if not better.
Recently I posted my thoughts on a lullaby I regularly sing to Camden. Lately a CD we listen to in the car has stirred up a few new thoughts and emotions, causing me to relearn some lessons that I have always known to be true, but needed some reminding of.
The CD we listen to is called Hide 'Em In Your Heart (Volume 2) recorded by the popular Steve Green. My mom played these songs for us when we were little, and gave the CD to Camden as a gift this past Christmas. I still remembered the lyrics to all these songs, and they were quite calming and comforting to hear again after all these years.
One of the songs on this soundtrack highlights an important lesson set forth in the book of Proverbs. Steve Green begins the track by explaining God's omniscience and omnipresence: that God sees everything, all the time. His eyes are always keeping watch over the good things, and the bad things.
"The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." - Proverbs 15:3 KJV
The lyrics on the CD are based on a slightly different translation of the Bible, and are as follows:
The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
Keeping watch on the evil and the good
The eyes of the Lord are in every place
Keeping watch, keeping watch...
Keeping watch on the evil and the good
I started thinking about this in context with what has been happening in our country as of late, with regard to abortions. Without a doubt, there is an astounding presence of evil here in America and around the world. It seems as though the Devil is increasingly triumphant in state after state, as hundreds of thousands of babies are murdered by their own mothers' choice, within the womb. Surely Satan is clapping his hands in applause with the most sinister smile upon his face as he walks to and fro throughout the earth, gleefully witnessing these great acts of sinfulness. He must be so content with himself - thinking that he has triumphed over God. After all, look at the sheer abundance of it: hundreds of thousands of people are taking so great an evil as murder and painting over it with false words of justification like 'fetus', 'pro-choice', and 'emergency abortion'.
When I heard of the new legislation involving abortions recently passed in New York State, I felt three emotions: shock, anger, and the deepest sadness. I was driving along a country road with my precious son in the backseat as I heard this devastating announcement over the radio. I looked into my rear-view mirror at his innocent, sleeping form. I watched his small chest rise and fall as his tiny lungs breathed in the air that God so graciously gave him to breathe since he was born. And I cried. I cried for realizing the expansive, looming, terrorizing evil that exists in our country and in this world. I cried for knowing that it is ever-growing, never-decreasing, and will only continue to loom larger and larger as my baby grows older and begins to face it himself. I cried because it is becoming so acceptable and even routine for babies just like him to be killed and disposed of in parts and pieces. And I cried for all those babies, the ones that had been viciously, coldly, and savagely ripped from their mothers' wombs, from the place they were supposed to feel the most safe and the most loved. Day 1, Week 1, week 42... any day of every week in between; it's all the same sin. I prayed that of all the millions of babies murdered, among them were a number of God's elect children, chosen before time unto life everlasting, and that the first breath their lungs ever breathed was in Heaven where no pain or evil could touch them.
Yet for us, the children of God still sojourning here on this earth, how do we continue to live and protect our children in this evil age? Is there still comfort for our hearts to find? How can we go on when evil abounds and it seems as though the Devil has a reigning hold on the world?
Our Heavenly Father is keeping watch.
His careful eyes see everything. He sees every small act of evil. Every action, every gesture, every word, and even every thought and smallest inclination. His eyes are ever so carefully watching over every New York State abortion clinic operating room, every operating room in the world in fact. His eyes watch as piece by piece babies are pulled from their mothers' wombs. And not only these particular sins are seen by His vigilant eye: He keeps watch over us when we lie, when we cheat, when we steal, when we gossip. He sees us when we think thoughts of hatred toward others, when we lust, or swear. He is watching us as we covet, and keep quiet when we hear His holy name being taken in vain. Every single moment of our entire lives, filled with countless sins, pass like open books through His unfaltering inspection. He sees us scrambling to try to paint over these sins with false words of justification. We cannot foolishly think that He is able to turn a blind eye to any sin. He does not miss a single occurrence in the universe He has created; not the silent falling of a hair from a head, not the silent screams of pain from a baby inside a womb.
Not only does He see the evil and the good, He sovereignly controls all of it as well. The will of our Heavenly Father is entirely all-inclusive. He has ordained every happening since before time began and earth had its form. Evil has not triumphed over good. The Devil has not overcome. We cannot forget the great power of our God; we cannot forget His fulfilled promise to His children. We have comfort in the assurance of His loving salvation, achieved for us through the sacrifice of His only Son.
"Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah." - Psalm 77: 7-15 KJV
In His redemption we find forgiveness for the evils we have committed. We absolutely must repent of them, to continue to ask Him for forgiveness each and every day. As the Spirit of Christ breathes new life into our hearts, God's watchful eye beholds our faith and the good fruits thereof. His eyes behold His precious sons and daughters, washed white as snow in the blood of Christ His only begotten. Every evil within our hearts has been lifted away from us and paid for by Christ on the cross. God's loving hands guide the way and protect us as we press on through the world's evils that tower ever higher around us. And His loving eyes keep watch over our every footstep through the narrow and rocky pathway of this life until, by His good will, He grants us our final breath and we are swept up into our Heavenly home where there is not a single evil to behold.
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