Sunday's Hymn

I can’t use a hymn I sang in church today because we sang no hymns. As an alternative I’m going with one that’s been running round my head recently, a favorite from my younger years and one I sang as a lullaby to my children.

Children of the Heav’nly Father

Children of the heav’nly Father
Safely in His bosom gather;
Nestling bird nor star in Heaven
Such a refuge e’er was given.

God His own doth tend and nourish;
In His holy courts they flourish;
From all evil things He spares them;
In His mighty arms He bears them.

Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord His children sever;
Unto them His grace He showeth,
And their sorrows all He knoweth.

Though He giveth or He taketh,
God His children ne’er forsaketh;
His the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy.

Lo, their very hairs He numbers,
And no daily care encumbers
Them that share His ev’ry blessing
And His help in woes distressing.

Praise the Lord in joyful numbers:
Your Protector never slumbers.
At the will of your Defender
Ev’ry foeman must surrender.

—-Lina Sandell Berg (In the original Swedish: Tryggare Kan Ingen Vara)

And a Swedish Lutheran hymn would be sung best by a few Scandinavian Lutherans, don’t you think?

 

Or, if you’d rather, you can hear it sung in Swedish as a lullaby.

 

(I’ll have a review of another CD of hymns done by the St. Olaf Choir soon.)

 

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• The Third Sunday after Trinity at Magic Statistics
  
• God Is Known Among His People at Hiraeth
  
• The King of Love My Shepherd Is at Seasoning of the Heart
• The Is a City Bright at Whatever Things…
• Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus at Field Stone Cottage
• Lord’s Day 23, 2008 at The Thirsty Theologian
• O Holy City, Seen of John at Conjubilant With Song
• It Is Not Death to Die at joythruChrist
• Update: Eye Hath Not Seen at The Happy Wonderer
  

Have you posted a hymn today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

Not Impressed

Three guesses what the white dots in that graphic are. 

Update on Sunday, June 8, 2008 at 4:27PM by rebecca

Scott has proof that we really did have snow today.

The Blue Belles

Last Sunday  I promised to edit and repost one more of the old wildflower post so you can see another of the blue wildflowers of the Yukon. This one is blooming in my perennial garden right now, so the time for reposting is here. (I’ve also submitted this post to Project Blue at Anna Carson Photography.)

 

We could call this tall lungwort, but that’s just one of it’s names—the one that makes it sound like a deadly disease. I prefer to call them languid ladies, another of their common names, because the flowers look like little women dressed in fancy ball gowns, don’t they? As I tried to take this photo, they danced in the summer wind, looking anything but languid. Perhaps there was a wildflower ball I was not invited to.

 

I could also call them northern bluebells or chiming bells, but I grew up calling harebells by the bluebell name and I’m not about to stop now. So languid ladies it is for me. Harebells grow here, too, by the way, but I haven’t seen any yet this year.

 

If you like eating wild plants, you’ll be happy to know that tall lungwort, as a member of the borage family, is edible. If you like, you can add the little ladies to salads. No, they don’t taste like chicken; they taste like fish. The leaves of the lungwort can be steeped for a delicately fishy tasting tea, too—a tea that was at one time considered useful for treating lung diseases. And now you know where the lungwort name cames from.

 

Previous wildflower posts: 

• Lavender Charm
• Into the Wild Blue