The Lutheran Seminary of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States "God Pause Daily Devotion" "This Is My Song" by Lloyd Stone and Georgia Harkness ELW 887

The Lutheran Seminary of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States "God Pause Daily Devotion" "This Is My Song" by Lloyd Stone and Georgia Harkness ELW 887

1. This is my song, O God of all the nations,

a song of peace for lands afar and mine;

this is my home, the country where my heart is;

here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:

but other hearts in other lands are beating

with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

2. My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,

and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;

but other lands have sunlight too, and clover,

and skies are everywhere as blue as mine:

O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,

a song of peace for their land and for mine.

3. May truth and freedom come to every nation;

may peace abound where strife has raged so long;

that each may seek to love and build together,

a world united, righting every wrong;

a world united in its love for freedom,

proclaiming peace together in one song.*

*Third stanza by Georgia Harkness.

My wife and I spent a year in Aberdeen, Scotland, after my seminary graduation. It was the beginning of 50 years of traveling to variousparts of the world. One of the greatest gifts I received that year was seeing my country through the eyes of the people of Scotland.
When our congregation sings the hymn "This Is My Song," I am often walking down the aisle because it is our processional hymn. My eyes tear up as I sing and listen to the words that claim that the whole world belongs to God, that the people of other nations have the same pride and joy for the place they call home as we do. It is in the midst of the wars that always seem to be raging that I join the hymn writer in longing for the day when we let God have God's way and we claim all of the world's people as our brothers and sisters.
Lord Jesus, thank you for the gift of our nation. Thanks for the gift of all nations. May your Spirit unite us in love and service for each other. Amen.
Franklin Lee
Pastor, Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Naples, Fla.
Doctorate of Ministry , 1965
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