Streams of Mercy

This Memorial Day a favorite hymn text comes to mind.

We sing it each year at the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service,

and I have it in my heart year-round.

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.

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.

Just this morning I discovered additional verses to this hymn,

and offer it as the prayer of my heart this Memorial Day:

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.

The first two verses were written by Lloyd Stone when he was 22 years old.

He planned to become a teacher, then one day joined a circus bound for

Hawaii and remained there for the rest of his life, writing poems and songs.

This is his best known work. Additional verses were written by Georgia

Harkness, a Methodist theologian with a passion for poetry and the

dream of global, ecumenical Christianity. The hymn text is usually sung

to the tune Finlandia, by Sebelius.

This is my prayer, O Lord of all earth’s kingdoms,

thy kingdom come, on earth, thy will be done …

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

myself I give thee –let thy will be done.

Remembering and giving thanks this Memorial Day, and ever grateful for those streams of mercy, never ceasing!

Elizabeth