More About Children of the Heavenly Father

I found this info while trying to recheck something I had read this morning.

Verses 1-2 are based upon Psalm  84

The hymn verses

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.

Psalm 84
How lovely is Your tabernacle,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, even faints
For the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home,
And the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may lay her young—
Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,
My King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;
They will still be praising You. Selah

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
They make it a spring;
The rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
Each one appears before God in Zion.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
O God, behold our shield,
And look upon the face of Your anointed.

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
The Lord will give grace and glory;
No good thing will He withhold
From those who walk uprightly.

O Lord of hosts,
Blessed is the man who trusts in You!

Verse 3 is based upon Rom. 8:38-39
The hymn verse

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

Romans 8:38-39
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Verse 4 is based upon Job 1:21
The hymn verse

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

Job 1:21
And he said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

I didn't find any information on the basis of the latter two verses, but I'll include them here with the references I cited in the previous post. These are the most obvious passages of which these verse remind me.

Verse 5 draws upon Matthew 10:30 and Luke 12:7
The hymn verse

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

Matthew 10:30 and Luke 12:7

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 

Verse 6 draws on Psalm 121:3-4
The hymn verse

Praise the Lord in joyful numbers:
Your Protector never slumbers.
At the will of your Defender

Ev’ry foeman must surrender.

Psalm 121:3-4
He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 

I also read a little bit about the poet, Karolina Wilhelmina Sandell Berg, also known as Lina.  This blog post seems to summarize all the variety of biographical information about her.  It sounds as though she was blessed with a very fruitful pen.  I was especially looking for information about the tragic year she had, during the year this hymn was first published.  Some sources tell that this hymn was the direct result of a year of tragedy in her life, a year of death and illness, the pinnacle or which was the death of her dear father in a shipwreck.  Others feel she wrote it during her teenaged years, but that it wasn't published until later in her life, after her tragic year.  Either way, the hymn beautifully portrays God's providential care, and the idea that our times are in His hands.

Verses 3 and 4 always remind me of the familiar verses St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, as he was waiting to find out if he was to be executed.
Philippians 1:19-26
For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,  according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.  For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.  Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.  And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith,  that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.

Chidren of the Heavenly Father

I had never heard this hymns before my highschool choir director introduced it to us to prepare.  I recall that Professor Moldenhauer, the director of our choir, offered some sort of explanation that seemed almost more of an apology.  A parent or grandparent had requested it.  But it seemed as though there was something a bit, well, illicit about it all. 

I think I understand why now.  But at the time I didn't have the cultural understanding to put it all together. I just thought it was strange that Prof. Moldenhauer felt the need to explain why we were preparing a certain hymn.  He didn't offer explanation for any of the other songs we prepared, after all.

But this one, (imagine my hand cupped near my mouth to better project my whispered explanation), this one...is from the Swedish tradition.  More broadly it came into American Lutheranism with all the Scandinavian Lutherans.

From the point of view of my choir director it must have seemed almost foreign.  I attended a Lutheran highschool.  The particular strain of Lutheranism in which I was raised was from the German Lutheran tradition.  In fact, later on, during my college years at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, a classmate was perusing my highschool yearbook.  Suddenly she exclaimed almost accusatorily, as if I had lied to her, "I thought you said you went to a Lutheran high school!  Why are all these names Jewish?"  She was from Milwaukee, from an area with a high concentration of Polish Americans; and she had also been in the sorority system of the UW, which apparently took notice of such things as all the young Jewish women attending the UW, from New York.  All these names that were a normal part of my cultural heritage,... names like Stein, Bernthal, Lichtenberg, Mueller, Schultz...good German names, right?  To this friend from a different cultural background, they were all Jewish names.

In America, we are a melting pot.  We are all Americans.  But we are so diverse that even everyday regular things can seem quite strange to those who grew up among a different cultural background, or in a different part of the country. 

And the same too, in Lutheranism.  Officially, on paper, doctrinally, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of which I am now a part, and which grew out of the Norwegian Lutheran tradition, is in full agreement with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, in which I grew up, and which is out of the German Lutheran tradition.  But I have found throughout the years that there are many cultural differences between the two. 

And so Professor Moldenhauer's almost chagrin at us singing this song that was "from them, the Norwegians, those other  Lutherans."  I remember his explanation/apology went something like this, "This is an old hymn.  Some of you may have heard it before.  It's not really very common, but it's very well loved, especially by some older members."  It could be that at this point he even mentioned that it was from the Scandinavian tradition.  I was probably too clueless at that point to care about such details.  But as a teenaged girl who was understandably very sensitive to the whole "cool" thing, I do remember very well that his body language and demeanor projected an almost tail between the legs aspect.

The hymn is beautiful.  And now that I've been a part of the Norwegian American tradition for over 20 years, I appreciate how well loved it is by so many.  It's a very common funeral selection.  In fact, my kids have been asked to sing it at the funeral of more than one older friend.

It's one of the first hymns I teach to my children.  It's peaceful tune and timeless truths of God's providence and promises have lulled my babies and even older little ones to sleep throughout the years.  I suppose someone could make an argument that although there is no false doctrine in the hymn, it doesn't express fully and clearly the idea of Salvation from Sin through Jesus.  (You have to remember I am married to a pastor...I can  never fully escape the constant responsibility he feels to take every opportunity of sharing the whole truth of God's Plan of Salvation.)

I've only ever known the first four verses of this hymn, but I found two more today, when I was searching for the text to stick in my post.  I've included those last two here also, since they portray two of my favorite pictures of God our Heavenly Father.  He knows us so well that even something as trivial as the number of the hairs on our head is His concern (Matthew 10:30 and Luke 12:7).  And also that He never slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4). 

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.

Puzzling Weather

My kids and I used to do jigsaw puzzles all winter long.  Between putting the kids in school; rearranging various household rooms several years ago; and never getting everything organized after that change; my younger kids have very little experience with puzzles.  The last few years, we've probably only worked a few each year. 

This is one of the things I have rued, at different times.  I love the time spent together, working a puzzle.  The kids sing songs, tell jokes and stories, and talk about all the things that are important to them.  They all seem to work together, all the many different ages.  The bigger kids always help to find little sections or certain pieces that the littles can help with.

Plus I really believe the process of matching the shapes and colors and concepts in a jigsaw puzzle helps to grow some important brain connections.

The other week, Elsie finally put all the puzzles that have been littering her closet for years into a couple of extra large tote bins. (Yes, two of the tall under-bed boxes that span the width of a twin bed, plus one more that is not as long.  That's only about 1/2 of our puzzles.  Yes, we have too many.)

These bins are all sitting in my living room right now, so my kids have been doing some of the easier ones by themselves lately.

But during this rainy four-day weekend, I decided it was time to pull out some "one step harder" ones.  And more importantly, to take time to sit down and spend some time working them with my children. 

The one I chose was actually a collection of six kitty puzzles.  The pieces are not too small, but not big, either.  All total, there are 480 pieces.  And each puzzle is about 8x11".  It's a beautiful set of puzzles, made by Springbok, which in my experience makes very child friendly puzzles.  They stay together well.  This means the kids are not frustrated by the parts they've already accomplished getting jostled apart by their many reaching hands and arms.  And the pieces are sturdier than many cheaper jigsaws. 

The pictures in this set are very sweet.  And important for a family such as ours, each picture is of a different enough composition that several different levels of skill are demanded.  This set was given to Louisa as a birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa many years ago.  It has always been a favorite.

But alas! in the process of the last, oh, six years or so, since the last time I was at all organized, all of the the pieces to this set of puzzles had gotten mixed up.  Even though each puzzle was not difficult, the idea of sorting out the pieces of the different puzzles was too much for the younger kids. 

When the kids were getting a little wild yesterday afternoon, I suggested they get these puzzles out. I was finishing up cutting and peeling some winter squash for our trial run at canning it, so I was mostly only functioning in an advisory capacity.  But we were all at the table together.  My squash and I at one end, and the kids and the puzzles scattered around the other.

The bigger girls helped to sort the different pieces a bit, but then they would get distracted putting together the ones they had sorted.  They all got to work a little bit.  

But they had only sorted about 1/3 of the pieces when it was time to clear the table for supper.  I had them put the puzzles on cookie sheets, each puzzle along with the pieces they had tentatively matched with it.  Then we stacked up the trays, and set them aside for the night. 

When I was having coffee this morning, Inge was the only little one up.  So I pulled out the puzzles and started sorting a little bit more.  Gradually Inge and I worked on a couple of them.  Then Stella, and a little bit later Donna came out, too.  They each got to work a couple, both alone and with my help.  Sometimes they were snuggled up on my lap, and other times they worked on their own tray down on the floor.

At one point I looked at my clock and saw it was time for me to go meet my ladies for my morning walk.  Since it was rainy, we had planned to do indoor exercise.  So I didn't need to worry about being left behind if I was late.  I could have made it.  But I decided to call and excuse myself.

"I'm doing puzzles with my little ones.  It's been ever so long since I've taken time to do that.  I don't want to miss this moment."  I don't like to miss my exercise time with my ladies, and I had already missed Wednesday, since we attended a school related function that morning.

But there are simply some things that are more important than exercise.

By the time John got up, there was only one puzzle left, the most difficult one.  This one is a closeup of three kitties eating out of a bowl.  The background is a plain floor and wall.  So the primary visuals in this puzzle are just fur, wall, and table.  There is a little rim of  bowl that adds a different dimension. 

John asked if he could do it by himself, and I told him that yes, he could try.  I've found that boys are generally a little slower to learn the skills of doing jigsaw puzzles, and they generally are less interested, so I was not sure how this would go.  The girls were ready to eat breakfast by this time, so they went to the kitchen where I let them help themselves to a cold cereal meal.  I asked John if he wanted to sit on my lap while he puzzled away, and he gladly came up to have a little snuggle time while he worked.  I balanced the cookie sheet for him, and held the box with the extra pieces turned upright where he could see and reach the ones he needed.

It's a good thing I had my hands full, because it was an awful temptation for me to help him out a little.

But John did really well without my input (or meddling).

And I got a good snuggle with my nine year old son.  It's not often he takes the time to snuggle with his mom any more.  And also, sadly, it's not often that when he wants it my lap is open for him, since he has three younger siblings.

Altogether this was an excellent way to start the day.  Rain is a good thing.  Very puzzling weather.