Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Inspired by a simple dandelion shining in the sun, Lilias Trotter, a Christian missionary in the early 1900s, wrote a single line of prose about turning to Jesus.

Years later in 1918, Helen Lemmel was standing on a street corner & handed a small leaflet. Inside were Lilias’ words. Helen was deeply moved. She recalled:

“Suddenly, as if commanded to stop & listen, I stood still, & singing in my soul & spirit was the chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual manner of composition, but nonetheless dictated by the Holy Spirit.”

Her song was first published in England & is now a popular Christian hymn. 

I’d never heard it until Sunday when our Relief Society teacher played a recording of her daughter singing it. I was also moved.

“O soul, are you weary & troubled?

No light in the darkness you see

There’s light for a look at the Savior,

And life more abundant & free

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 & grace.

Through death into life everlasting

He passed, & we follow Him there;

O’er us sin no more hath dominion—

For more than conqu’rors we are!

His Word shall not fail you—He promised;

Believe Him, & all will be well:

Then go to a world that is dying,

His perfect salvation to tell!

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 & grace.”

I couldn’t help but think of God’s words to Emma Smith: “Lay aside the things of this world, & seek for the things of a better.” (D&C 25:10)

Look to the sun... the SON. And “the things of earth will grow strangely dim.”

Helen Lemmel went blind later in life, making the words of her hymn ever more poignant & prophetic. 

Though her earthly eyes dimmed, her spiritual eyes faithfully & continually turned to The Light. When asked how she was, she’d say, “I am fine in the things that count.” She died at 97. 

She wrote over 500 hymns.

So grateful for “song[s] of the heart” (12) that bring me away from the world & closer to Him.