You are the Sun.

This is what I ask / For all my days / That I may / Never look away, never look away / Captivated by you / I am captivated by you / May my life be one unbroken gaze / Fixed upon Your beauty / Fixed upon the beauty of Your face.

As Christians, the Bible calls us to fix our eyes upon Jesus and never look away. But we do. We focus our gaze upon Him, but we’re distracted as the things of the world – friends, work, school, love, possessions – vie for our attention. And we look away.

Looking back at my past experiences, I’ve always thought it was strange that I would choose to focus on the things of the world instead of on the glory of God. I’ve been confused as to what allure these things hold when I have the promise of perfect love fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

Yet, as I sing this song, this answer comes.

As humans, it is our natural tendency to want to look at the sun. There is so much power in the sun, and so much about it we do not know. We shade our eyes, squint a little, and raise our gaze – just for a second – before we blink and look away. We can never focus on it for more than a moment, though it is rarely because something else grabs our attention. There is no plant, no creature, no single thing on earth that possesses as much mystery as the sun.

We look away from the sun because it is too bright. The sun, after all, can blind us in only seconds. So much mystery. So much power.

Just as my eyes are not made to stare into the bright light of the sun, I look away because I never feel worthy to look upon the Son of God without lowering my gaze. It’s so hard to look at Him and not feel insignificant. It’s so hard to see His radiance and not feel unclean. It’s so hard to raise my eyes and adjust to the Light.

It is impossible for a human to stare at the Son.

But He is the light by which everything is illuminated. He reveals that the diamonds I hold near are just pebbles in the light of his glory; these tangible treasures contain nothing I desire. They are dull and ugly and worthless.

And when I see things in this light, I cannot help but rightly turn my eyes upon Jesus. He is the only thing I see, and He is so glorious. So majestic. So radiant. So bright – the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

And even though it hurts my eyes, I would rather go blind than ever look away.