Have you heard any 12 year-old kid sing a solo in church recently? When I sang there was no applause, no standing ovation, no hugs at the door. I don’t remember any compliments, either, although there might have been. But I will not forget the words of that tremendous song.
I hope hearing those words was a blessing to everyone that day, and I’m sure that over the years many singers have lent their voices to share the words and melody of “The Love of God.”
The writer of two of the verses and the chorus was Frederick M. Lehman in 1917. http://www.tanbible.com/tol_sng/sng_theloveofgod.htm He writes about that mysterious third verse as being written nearly one thousand years earlier by a Jewish songwriter. The website says that the 3rd stanza had been found penciled on the wall of a patient’s room in an insane asylum. Does that ever stretch the mind to try to comprehend!
Listen to the song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEi463LcxxA Maybe you’ve heard other singers perform this song. Did it speak to your heart? Have you considered the love of God?
Since it was 67 years ago when I sang that first solo I’m sure that now my voice cannot do it justice. But the words are in my heart, and what I now share with other people are words I write, not sung with a sweet soprano voice in a church in Phoenix, Arizona.
Here’s more on Mr. Lehman who was born 1868 in Mecklenburg, Schwerin, Germany, His family emigrated in American when he was 4 and settled in Iowa. He died in Pasadena, California in 1953 http://www.hymnary.org/person/Lehman_FM (Click “See More” about his life.)
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By Elaine Hardt ©2016
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By Elaine Hardt ©2016
