MORNING HAS
BROKEN
Morning has
broken like the first morning; blackbird has spoken like the first
bird.
Praise for the
singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for
them, springing fresh from the Word!
Sweet the
rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven, like the first dewfall on the
first grass.
Praise for the
sweetness of the wet garden,
sprung in
completeness where God's feet pass.
Mine is the
sunlight! Mine is the morning, born of the one light Eden saw
play!
Praise with
elation, praise ev'ry morning,
God's
recreation of the new day!
Text: Eleanor
Farjeon, 1881-1965
Text © Miss E.
Farjeon Will Trust, by permission of David Higham Associates.
Sometimes, it’s
all a matter of how we see things.
For instance,
when I was growing up as a Catholic boy, Martin Luther’s tune for
“A Mighty Fortress is Our God” was not the great anthem of faith I
now know it to be. Rather, it was the title music for the
children’s series “Davey and Goliath.” And “We Plow the Fields and
Scatter” was not a hymn but a beautiful, lilting song in the
musical “Godspell.”
Then there’s the
hymn I knew as a delicate, piano-backed piece by musician Cat
Stevens. I first heard “Morning Has Broken” as a slightly
different pop song back in the early 1970s, when I was in middle
school. The tune is catchy, but the lyrics are lovely. Imagine my
surprise later to hear it sung in church!
I needn’t have
been surprised, really. The lyrics celebrate the world around us,
the wonders that we see every day. The song of the blackbird, the
dew on the grass, the sweet rainfall – all things we may take for
granted. But the hymn sees these things for what they are –
wonders to appreciate. “Praise with elation, praise every
morning, God’s recreation of the new day!”
Many years have
passed since I first heard this lyric. The world has changed, of
course. Heck, even Cat Stevens changed – he became Yusaf Islam
after converting to Islam. Still, each day in this troubling
world, God shows us the splendors of the world he made. No matter
our names or faiths, we can certainly still agree on that.
Dear Lord, thank
you for the wonders you show us each day, in this world you made.
Help us to open our eyes to these and to know we need to
appreciate them more.
Ken Hobart |
