His Eye is on he Sparrow, and I know he watches me

I remember George Beverly Shea singing this wonderful song at Billy Graham revivals through the years. Did you know that a married couple who lived in Elmira, New York were the inspiration for this song? The lyricist was Civilla D. Martin, who wrote this about the song:

"Early in the spring of 1905, my hus­band and I were so­journ­ing in El­mi­ra, New York. We con­tract­ed a deep friend­ship for a cou­ple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doo­lit­tle—true saints of God. Mrs. Doo­lit­tle had been bed­rid­den for nigh twen­ty years. Her hus­band was an in­cur­a­ble crip­ple who had to pro­pel him­self to and from his bus­i­ness in a wheel chair. De­spite their af­flict­ions, they lived hap­py Christ­ian lives, bring­ing in­spir­a­tion and com­fort to all who knew them. One day while we were vi­sit­ing with the Doo­lit­tles, my hus­band com­ment­ed on their bright hope­ful­ness and asked them for the se­cret of it. Mrs. Doo­lit­tle’s re­ply was sim­ple: "His eye is on the spar­row, and I know He watch­es me." The beau­ty of this sim­ple ex­press­ion of bound­less faith gripped the hearts and fired the imag­in­a­tion of Dr. Mar­tin and me. The hymn "His Eye Is on the Spar­row" was the out­come of that ex­per­i­ence. "

Mrs. Doolitle was referring to the the words of Jesus - spoken in the book of Matthew (chapters 6 & 10).

The Doctor has determined that Butch has thrush - as a result of all the antibiotics. He is taking some medication to get rid of it, but - it burns when he eats, and may be one of the reasons that he is not eager to eat most of the time. They put a pic line in for him to receive his medications (inside - up through the arm) - it was getting too difficult for them to get a vein for the IV's - we think this will be better - jeez - he has been a human pin cushion for the last few weeks - could get a job in the circus!

It is a very beautiful day here - quite cool this morning, bright sunny day - not a cloud in the sky. We called Irene yesterday, and Butch talked to Flash. Irene said the other day she took him over to our house for a while. He ran into the bedroom and jumped on our bed - his bed, actually. When she told him it was time to go, he was disappointed - thought he was home for good, I guess, and pouted for hours afterwards. Poor Flashy - we have turned his world upside down.

They opened an IGA food store down on Forbes Ave. - yesterday was the grand opening. This is a BIG deal, as there are no markets in downtown Oakland. I went there yesterday - it is on the 2nd floor - you take an elevator up to get there, or - walk the stairs. It was built - for the most part - expecting the Pittsburgh Medical school students who all live around here to use it - not convenient for older folks! Incidentally, school starts the 25th, and the students are returning to town - traffic is horrific - glad I am not driving. They are making lasagna at the house for tonight - I can't wait.