Last week I started a Sunday Hymn of the week tradition. Today I am writing about "God Be With You." (Words can be found here. And I didn't realize there was a chorus until I googled it and a bunch of websites showed the chorus. Did you know there was a chorus?)
According to my book, there was a 28 year old missionary who worked in Indonesia with her husband and a good friend of theirs. She got sent to a prison camp during World War II, suffered unspeakable trials, and her husband and friend died. She was released when Japan surrendered and, as she was leaving the camp, she vowed never to return to Indonesia where so much has been taken from her.
However, as her boat was leaving the island, she heard voices raised in this song, singing to her. They were the people who had come to know God because of the work she, her husband and their friend had done. She later wrote that when she heard the song released the tears of bitterness and she knew that she would return to Indonesia, her island home.
So "Good-bye," or "God Be With You," which is what "good-bye" means.
Again, such a sweet story, Natasha! A good reminder that out of adversity and pain, God can make something beautiful! And oh man, Rachel's dress is just gorgeous (light blue is actually my favorite color to see on little girls) and Sam is just looking so grown up and handsome in his little shirt and tie.
ReplyDeleteI love this post, especially the last part with the translation. I always like to say "Good Morning" to people instead of just "hello." A Sunday school teacher told me that the "Good" basically translates as "God." So, it is like saying "It's God's morning," or "God be with you this morning."
ReplyDeleteLove this! : )
I think it was through reading Shakespeare that I learned that "Good" in our greetings and farewells meant "God." I think it's really neat how our language changes over time -- from "God be with you" to "Good-bye" and from "God's morning" to "Good morning."
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