She Looks to the Sky

There's a song that I came across on an album a long time ago.  It's by a singer named Sherri Youngward.  I loved it when I first heard it.  Here are the lyrics:


They say she is loved by the greatest of all
Who have walked in the world
He lives far away still she spends all her days
Content with only his words


She often walks alone
But never is she lonely
You can offer her anything
Her affections are all for Him only


She looks to the sky
As if He is coming down through the clouds up above
Though no one has seen Him you cannot deny
She is drenched in His love


All the day long she sings sweetly
She says He speaks to her mind
She’s only rich with affliction
Yet a bitter word you won’t find


She lives with assurance
He loves her too deeply to let such distance remain
She’s brimming with longing for Him to come calling
And sweep her away

When I first heard this song, I wished I could be like this fictional woman, with her extreme devotion to Jesus.  However, I recently discovered, thanks to a friend's blog, that this woman was not fictional at all.  My friend posted an excerpt from a letter the great preacher Jonathan Edwards wrote about a girl whom he'd heard about and who would later become his wife.  These are those words:

They say there is a young lady in [New Haven] who is loved of that Great Being, who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this Great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight; and that she hardly cares for any thing, except to meditate on him - that she expects after a while to be received up where he is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven; being assured that he loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from him always. There she is to dwell with him, and to be ravished with his love and delight forever. Therefore, if you present all the world before her, with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it and cares not for it, and is unmindful of any pain or affection. She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and singular purity in her affections; is most just and conscientious in all her conduct; and you could not persuade her to do any thing wrong or sinful, if you would give her all the world, lest she should offend this Great Being. She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of mind; especially after this Great God has manifested himself to her mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly; and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure; and no one knows for what. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have some one invisible always with her.

He wrote this about her when she was only 13 years old!  the words are too close to the lyrics of the song for them not to be related.  


Now this song has new meaning to me, because I know it was based on a real person.  But somehow, it makes that desire and closeness to Christ seem that much more unattainable.