Once my daughter was able to sit up in her high chair and begin eating food by herself, I used that time to load/unload the dishwasher and generally clean up the kitchen. While doing so, particularly on Sunday mornings, I would play music from the Tabernacle Choir. But I often found myself playing their renditions of “Where you are” and “Circle of Life” more than “I am a Child of God” or “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” I particularly became fond of “Through Heaven’s Eyes” from The Prince of Egypt as sung by Brian Stokes Mitchell. The lyrics are a powerful reminder of the importance of perspective (I removed some of the repetition and “La-lai-lai-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai” in the interest of space)
“A single thread in a tapestry
Though its color brightly shines
Can never see its purpose
In the pattern of the grand design
And the stone that sits on the very top
Of the mountains mighty face
Does it think it's more important
Than the stones that form the base?
So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man
You must look at your life
Look at your life through heaven's eyes
A lake of gold in the desert sand
Is less than a cool fresh spring
And to one lost sheep, a shepherd boy
Is greater than the richest king
If a man loses everything he owns
Has he truly lost his worth?
Or is it the beginning
Of a new and brighter birth?
So how do you measure the worth of a man
In wealth or strength or size?
In how much he gained or how much he gave?
The answer will come
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through heaven's eyes
And that's why we share all we have with you
Though there's little to be found
When all you've got is nothing
There's a lot to go around
No life can escape being blown about
By the winds of change and chance
And though you never know all the steps
You must learn to join the dance
So how do you judge what a man is worth
By what he builds or buys?
You can never see with your eyes on earth
Look through heaven's eyes
Look at your life through heaven's eyes”
The song is beautiful and the lyrics are stirring! If only I could bottle up the feelings I have when I hear this song and keep them with me always!
Of course sometimes in life we have the opportunity to see or feel things through “heaven’s eyes”. It can come through being a parent for the first time. It can come through a particularly uplifting church meeting or temple session. Perhaps it comes when praying sincerely and earnestly. Or in a myriad of other ways. My father recently shared that he experienced this at a funeral for his best friend from high school. Words failed to fully express how he felt about it all, but I could feel the meaning of what he was sharing. He said that he felt joy and that the joy swallowed up all of the pain and suffering that had occurred. Perhaps this is what Alma meant as he described he experience to his son Helaman:
“Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.” (Alma 36:21)
It wasn’t that the negative or bad experiences had not occurred or were not still “bad,” but in the moment, they were swallowed up in joy. That is one of the great miracles of the atonement of Jesus Christ. In the most recent General Conference, Elder Brian K. Taylor quoted Sister Lynda Reeves regarding a heavenly perspective on trials. This is the full quote from Sister Reeves in 2015:
“Sisters, I do not know why we have the many trials that we have, but it is my personal feeling that the reward is so great, so eternal and everlasting, so joyful and beyond our understanding that in that day of reward, we may feel to say to our merciful, loving Father, “Was that all that was required?” I believe that if we could daily remember and recognize the depth of that love our Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us, we would be willing to do anything to be back in Their presence again, surrounded by Their love eternally. What will it matter, dear sisters, what we suffered here if, in the end, those trials are the very things which qualify us for eternal life and exaltation in the kingdom of God with our Father and Savior?”
I close with the words of another song, “You Raise Me Up” as sung by BYU’s Vocal Point:
“There is no life, no life without it's hunger
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly
But when you come and I am filled with wonder
Sometimes I think, I glimpse eternity”
