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If you Want to be an Ally… then Open Your Eyes!
Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee,
Ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!
Sixty years ago, I stood in the children’s chapel for Sunday School. We began Sunday School with 25–30 minutes of lessons and music, and that song was my favorite. I liked the cheerful tune and the insistent consistency of the long-e end rhyme. Every Sunday I hoped we’d sing that song. I enjoyed it, even though the words made little sense to me. If the writer’s theme is open eyes, then why add the hands and the key, because keys don’t “unclasp” anything?
Seriously. It kept me up at night. I loved that song, and while I sang it, illuminated by light shining through the stained-glass window, I waited to have my eyes opened to…something.
So many years later, I’m waiting to see what happens after the eyes are opened and the truth glimpsed. Suddenly, white American society has “seen” something, and it can’t stop…
