Update 1/10/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
Tammy Moody wrote the lyrics for this new song. I love the way she ties together images of harvesting the land, social justice, and the Lord’s Supper. The more connections we can make between what we do in worship and in the world, the better.
Tammy also took the picture of a boat. Why a boat, you ask? As we discussed the relationship between words and music, she told me about someone who said lyrics are like a boat: they need music like a boat needs water; once the two come together, their journey. begins.
1. O give us eyes to see them,
forgotten bits of grain
discarded in the harvest
as chaff upon the plain
O let our hands come gleaning
the lonely little ones,
so precious in your eyes, Lord,
it’s you who bid them, “Come”
We gather them to you, Lord,
to celebrate your feast
For such as these, your children,
O let our love increase.
2. O give us ears to hear them,
faint, pleading, hungry cries
from outcast souls and beggars
before we hurry by
O let us go to seek them
until the last is found
and mercy’s hands not tiring
‘til all their wounds are bound
We gather them to you, Lord,
to celebrate your feast
For both the babe and beggar,
O, let our love increase.
