Throwback Thursday: Amy Grant - My Father's Eyes

Remember this song from the 80’s?:

I may not be every mother's dream for her little girl
And my face may not grace the mind of everyone in the world
But thats alright as long as I can have one wish, I pray
When people look inside my life, I wanna hear them say

She's got her father's eyes
Her father's eyes
Eyes that find the good in things
When good is not around
Eyes that find the source of help, when help just can't be found
Eyes full of compassion, seein' every pain
Knowing what you're going through, and feelin' it the same

Just like my father's eyes
my father's eyes
my father's eyes
Just like my father's eyes

On that day when we will pay for all the deeds we've done
Good and bad they'll all be had to see by everyone
And when you're called to stand and tell just what you saw in me
More than anything I know, I want your words to be

She had her father's eyes, her father's eyes
eyes that found the good in things when good was not around
eyes that found the source of help when help would not be found
Eyes full of compassion, seein' every pain
Knowin' what you're goin' through and feelin it the same

Just like my father's eyes,
My father's eyes,
My father's eyes,
Just like my father's eyes,
My father's eyes,
My father's eyes

I loved this song—it spoke to my spirit about the way God sees us, before I even really began to understand it.

Amy Grant’s songs were catchy, full of truth, and upbeat. I, along with several of my friends, went through an “Amy Grant phase.” “My Father’s Eyes” and “Angels Watching Over Me” were my two favorites. I have great memories of listening to those songs.

I also remember people giving Amy Grant a bad rap for branching out into the secular music industry. Grant freely admits that she made some bad choices in the past. I say, ‘Who hasn’t?’ It’s often more difficult to deal with  life’s struggles, though, when you are in the spotlight. In a Today’s Christian Music interview, Amy Grant stated that “Life is often messy. It may sound flippant to say, ‘That’s why we need Jesus.’ But it really is the truth." I couldn’t agree more.

At the end of the same article, Amy sums up her return to her passion of musical performance and songwriting, after going through some rough times and public shame: "I was singing ‘My Jesus, I Love Thee,’" she remembers, "and there’s a lyric in the last verse that says, ‘I’ll sing with a glittering crown on my head.’" There is humility in Amy’s face as she reflects, "Here I am, somebody who’s endured some public shame, and now I’m singing at the top of my lungs about worshiping God with a glittering crown. And I thought, ‘This is so gutsy of me to be singing this.’ But that’s the miracle of it all. His grace. And it’s not a cheap grace; it’s doing the best I can and realizing that my best was not good enough… but His was."