The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beeching

Day 37 – Wednesday in Holy Week – Turn Your Eyes

To Read: 

From the Scriptures:

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.^{[1] 16} “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷ “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.   (John 3v14-17)

From Vicky Beeching:

Turn Your Eyes

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 and grace
In the light of His glory and grace

Isn’t He beautiful?
Isn’t He beautiful?
Outshining sun and stars
It’s indescribable
How breathtaking You are

So I turn my eyes upon You now
Look full in Your wonderful face
And the things of earth
They grow strangely dim
In the light of Your glory and grace
In the light of Your glory and grace

You are so beautiful
You are so beautiful
Outshining sun and stars
It’s indescribable
How breathtaking You are

Turn your eyes (repeats)

To Listen:  Turn Your Eyes by Vicky Beeching:

To Reflect:

Some days during this Lent I have felt like writing the words, ‘Listen again, to the song you have just listened to,’ and then move straight on to, To Pray: and To Do:  Today is one of those days.  Taking the words of a well-known chorus Vicky dives deep into their meaning.  She leads us into a time of deep devotion and describes what will happen if we did indeed decide to not only Turn our eyes upon Jesus but also look fully on His face.  When we do the world and its cares fade away.

These cares do not disappear – would that they did – but they take their proper place behind and beneath and covered by the great love which is showered on those of us who, time after time, worship the false gods of power and pride, possessions and privilege.  The cause of so much of the pain of our common life.  

Turning our eyes on our Beloved means we must turn away from a world that is strange and dim at its best.  When we learn to be lost in the Beauty of our Beloved everything else that we have adored and lusted after is revealed as dross and it loses its power over us.  

When we allow ourselves to be consumed by the beauty of Christ we cannot but help but realise the beauty of every person on this planet who, even in some small way, reflects that same beauty.

At the end of the story of the Beauty and the Beast Belle has to take a second look at her Beast become Prince.  It’s almost as if she sees him for the first time and proclaims, ‘It is you!’  

So too with us.  

When we allow ourselves to fall in love with our Beloved instead of forever being at enmity with ourselves and the world, we are revealed as the person we always were.  Our Beloved whispers to us ‘It is you!’

Cherished by the One we cherish we are transformed and enabled to love the unlovely with the same love which turned our inner beast into beauty.  

Sing with me….  Tale as old as time.

To Pray:

To Do: 

Pick at least one:

1. Praise someone you despise
2. Give to someone who needs
3. Challenge a prejudice in yourself or another
4. Serve someone who is always serving others

oooOOOooo

If you would like to find out more about Vicky and her work here is a link to her Wikipedia entry.  For a fuller picture her autobiography ‘Undivided’ is highly recommended

Please Note:  These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com  on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page  Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.  

If you would like them as a daily email please send a request to revdotchin@gmail.com

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Acknowledgements:

These Reflections, ‘The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beaching’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2026 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that their source is acknowledged.

All of the music on the video clips are from YouTube and are © Vicky Beeching.  

If you enjoy listening to her songs please consider buying her recordings.  A full discography and other information about Vicky can be found on her website vickybeeching.com.

Scripture quotations are from The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.  Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Prayers are from A Diary of Prayer compiled by Elizabeth Goudge and are copyright © 1966 The Estate of Elizabeth Goudge.

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^[1] And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous^[a]serpent, and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” ⁹ So Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it upon a pole, and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. Numbers 21:8-9