Open our eyes

Open our eyes, that we might know
How heaven came to earth below. 
How did you come and what did you show
In Bethlehem so long ago?
Quietly now we wait for you,
Seeking what you would have us do. 
Show us the good, the just, the true,
Spirit of love.

Open our eyes to see your light,
Filling the skies that holy night.
Show us the way from shepherds’ sad fright
To behold you as all their sight. 
Quietly now we wait for you,
Seeking what you would have us do. 
Show us the good, the just, the true,
Spirit of love.

Open our eyes to now behold
What to those sages was foretold, 
So that to travel they were enrolled 
With myrrh and frankincense and gold.
Quietly now we wait for you,
Seeking what you would have us do. 
Show us the good, the just, the true,
Spirit of love.

Open our eyes and let us see
How what we celebrate can be 
What gives our lives both purpose and glee,
This day we call Epiphany. 
Quietly now we wait for you,
Seeking what you would have us do. 
Show us the good, the just, the true,
Spirit of love.

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022, after Clara H. Scott.

MUSIC: Tune OPEN MY EYES, Clara H. Scott, 1895.

The end of the twelve days of Christmas seems to call for going forward, but changed in some way by what we have seen and heard. The excellently simple hymn "Open my eyes, that I might see" provided the unlikely point of departure for a plea for the Spirit to open us to understand what we have seen and heard and to move forward with that understanding infused into our lives.