This post required 970 years to write, and parts of it are backwards.
Let me explain by telling you the story of the beloved hymn, "The Love of God."
Around the year 1050, a man whose name we read in modern English as Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai wrote a beautiful poem about the love of God, a poem that was preserved for centuries in the Jewish community.
We know it was preserved because around 870 years later, a Jewish man wrote it across the walls of the room where he would spend his last days of life. Perhaps it was the last thing he read as he entered eternity:
"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky."
Hymn writer Frederick Martin Lehman heard of this incident around that same time, and was inspired by the ancient poem to add two verses and a refrain -- so, the ancient poem that was written first became the THIRD verse, and there it has been since 1917, with Ms. Claudia D. Mays adding the music.
103 years later, bringing up the rear in the long and continuing story of "The Love of God," here I come with this music video made of my arrangement of the tune and beautiful spring photos from my collections.
But because some of you will read this post FIRST in learning about this hymn, the wonderful "backwards" journey involved with this beloved hymn will continue!
It took 970 years and the grace of God all the way to get it all here, so I certainly hope you are blessed by it (good Sunday to you, @jessamynorchard)!
This recording is an instrumental, but if you don't know the lyrics by heart and still want to sing along, go on to the YouTube video – I have included all 970 years of lyrics in the description there!
Enjoy, and be blessed!