Is there a particular song that triggers a memory for you every time you hear it? I’m guessing the answer is yes. Music often evokes memories – an association with a particular person, place or life experience. I can’t hear a Johnny Cash song without thinking of my beloved older brother, Bill, strumming his guitar and singing his heart out. When I hear the Navy hymn (“Eternal Father, Strong to Save”), I immediately feel a deep sense of sadness because I associate it with President Kennedy’s funeral procession. An Anne Murray tune brings me back to my first date with my husband on a cold February evening at Northrup Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus.
Yesterday our opening hymn was, “This is My Father’s World,” which also evokes memories for me. I remember singing it often in the church I grew up in (Victory Lutheran in north Minneapolis), and it seems to me that I came to love this hymn at a very young age. It might be because it was one of my Dad’s favorite hymns, too. He had a beautiful tenor voice and loved to sing almost anything. But I think this particular hymn spoke to my Dad because he was a lover of nature and cared deeply for all of God’s creation.
So it seemed appropriate that we would select “This is my Father’s World” as one of the hymns for my Dad’s funeral. And although it wasn’t yet spring, I distinctly remember hearing the birds singing that day and thinking how perfect that was. “This is my Father’s world; the birds their carols raise….” When I am suddenly struck by the beauty and wonder of God’s creation, this hymn often comes to mind. But it is the words of the last stanza that have helped sustain me through difficult times in my life and bolstered my faith when the events of the world have caused me to wonder where God is in the midst of it all:
This is my Father’s world; oh let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world; why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King, let the heavens ring; God reigns, let the earth be glad!
ELW 824, This Is My Father’s World
What hymn is particularly meaningful to you? How has it helped encourage you in your faith?
Let ev’ry instrument be tuned for praise;
Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise;
And may God give us faith to sing always: Alleluia!
ELW 851, When In Our Music God is Glorified
Amen.