Scripture Verse

Introduction

Origin of 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.

Civilla Mar­tin

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The next day Mar­tin mailed the po­em to Ga­bri­el, who wrote the mu­sic.

Singer Eth­el Wa­ters (1893–1977) so loved this song that she used its name as the ti­tle for her au­to­bi­o­gra­phy, and it ap­pears on her tomb­stone.

The song has al­so been per­formed by Mar­vin Gaye, An­dy Grif­fith, Whit­ney Hous­ton, Ma­ha­lia Jack­son, Gla­dys Knight, Jess­ye Nor­man and oth­ers.