Lilias Trotter: “heartsight”
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.
When Helen Lemmel wrote these words inspired by Trotter, she was blind. How fitting that someone who could not see the natural world wrote a song about turing their eyes to Jesus. But as Trotter taught us, there is such a thing as “heartsight,” seeing not just with our eyes but with our hearts, placing the focus of our affection, of our entire being on something. When Trotter placed the entirety of her focus on Jesus, the “immortality” and fame offered to Trotter by Ruskin became dim. A different path filled with all her passions, not limited to one, came to light, illuminated by His glory and grace.
As spring is beginning to bloom, let us look at the beautiful transformation of the world around us with heartsight and let the revelation of God’s beautiful transformation in nature minister to our hearts as He works in our own lives. For when we submit wholly to His will for our lives, we find immeasurable beauty in the transformation that takes place.
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