You Are the Eyes of the World

if you don't mind, please read the previous post (Wake Up to Find Out That...) first

so, here's my take. i'm not saying this is what hunter intended...obviously, i've no idea of that--this is just what this song has come to mean to a christian, thinking man.


"Right outside this lazy summer home
you don't have time to call your soul a critic, no
Right outside the lazy gate of winter's summer home
wondering where the nuthatch winters
Wings a mile long just carried the bird away"

i imagine the poet at his summer home...intending to relax. but, being the meloncholy sort (as many poets are), he's not feeling very restful. he has the propensity to be hard on himself...to think others are as hard on him as he is on himself. it's a crappy place to be. when we feel that way, we must remind our selves to not be that way. and i am reminded of the verse "when your heart comdemns you, He is greater than your heart.".

so, instead of being stuck in the mud (or in spite of being stuck in the mud), he wonders about the bird. maybe he wishes he could fly away...escape from the things that weigh him down...i want to be where the nut-hatch winters.

life is too short to stay in that state of mind.

"There comes a redeemer
and he slowly too fades away
There follows a wagon behind him
that's loaded with clay
and the seeds that were silent
all burst into bloom and decay
The night comes so quiet
and it's close on the heels of the day"

i'm not sure of what hunter thought about redeemer. i know my Redeemer, tho; and He does not fade away. redeemer can be defined as releasing someone from captivity by means of a ransom (which is exactly what our Redeemer has done for us).

but, as i see it the verse is in general, about death; and, in particular, about the brevity of life.

death releasing us from the confines of mortal life.

the wagon is again a metaphor for death (you can see hunter's song sugaree for similar imagry). the wagon is loaded with clay...we humans are but dust of the earth. oh! how temporary life is! here today, gone tomorrow; like the dormat seeds which burst into bloom and then so quickly decay and return to the earth from which they came, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. death, like evening, sneaks up on us so very quickly.

do you remember when you were young, playing bb or hide and go seek? we were supposed to be in b4 the street lights were on (i have to figure out what to tell my kids...no street lights here!). it was light...it was light...it was light...it was light...and boom! dark! just like that! where did it come from? and who stepped on the excellerator? death comes very quickly on the heals of living life. just as night come quickly following the day. death sneaks up on us...it's here b4 you know it.

"Sometimes we live
no particular way but our own
Sometimes we visit your country
and live in your home
Sometimes we ride on your horses
Sometimes we walk alone
Sometimes the songs that we hear
are just songs of our own"

well, it's true. we often choose to live our lives our own way, rather than the way God would have us live. we do visit Him from time to time. we do walk with Him for stretches...we visit His country...we live in His home. we rely on His strength ("your horses")...other times we lean on our own understanding (see proverbs 3:5-6)...indeed, some of the times when we think we are listening to God's own voice...we are only listening to our own heart's desire (whether good, bad or indifferent).

i'll leave the chorus for some more thinking.

thanks, mr. hunter.