Son-Day: "Through Heaven's Eyes"

This song has really been on my mind lately, so much I had to dig out my vhs tape and watch the movie it came from, "The Prince of Egypt".
I'm so aware I can't see the whole picture, or my part in the 'plan', but my Heavenly Father can, and does, and is right by my side as I travel, just waiting for ME to turn to Him for guidance.
Thanks God!!
God bless...

Through Heaven's Eyes

A single thread in a tapestry-
Though its color brightly shine-
Can never see its purpose
In the pattern of the grand design.

And the stone that sits on the very top
Of the mountain's mighty face-
Does it think it's more important
Than the stones that form the base?

So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man
You must look at your life,
Look at your life through heaven's eyes.
Lai-la-lai...

A lake of gold in the desert sand
Is less than a cool fresh spring-
And to one lost sheep, a shepherd boy
Is greater than the richest king.
If a man lose ev'rything he owns,
Has he truly lost his worth?
Or is it the beginning
Of a new and brighter birth?

So how do you measure the worth of a man-
In wealth or strength or size?
In how much he gained or how much he gave?
The answer will come,
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through heaven's eyes.

And that's why we share all we have with you,
Though there's little to be found.
When all you've got is nothing,
There's a lot to go around.

No life can escape being blown about
By the winds of change and chance,

And though you never know all the steps,
You must learn to join the dance-
You must learn to join the dance.

Lai-la-lai...

So how do you judge what a man is worth?
By what he builds or buys?

You can never see with your eyes on earth-
Look through heaven's eyes.
Look at your life,
Look at your life,
Look at your life through heaven's eyes!

Stephen Schwartz's comments

Question (posted on his forum at stephenschwartz.com) ... Do you have any interesting memories or things you could share of either the process of writing the lyrics and/or music to Through Heaven's Eyes and/or the process of getting it recorded? And did you choose Brian Stokes Mitchell to play that role or did somebody else?

Answer: ... "Through Heaven's Eyes" is my favorite of the songs in PRINCE OF EGYPT. It was actually the fourth song I wrote for that spot in the movie! The first three were more comedic and were essentially plot-driven, encompassing Moses' time in Midian. The first was called "All in the Attitude" and was kind of a comic number about how poor they all were, and the next two, called "Don't be a Stranger" and "One of Us", were about welcoming Moses into the tribe. For a while, we were going to go with "One of Us", but as the picture developed, Jeffrey Katzenberg began to feel that we needed something more philosophical and thematic in that spot. As we all began to think about it, one of the directors, Steven Hickner, came in with a poem called "The Measure of a Man", and I based the lyric for the song on the philosophy in the poem. The casting of Stokes was partly at my suggestion, since I knew him a bit, but it was a group decision.

Some of the specific images (the "stone on the mountain-top", for instance) were certainly influenced by my trip to the Sinai desert in Egypt.