Scripture Verse

Introduction

Origin of the Hymn

I wrote this hymn in Ju­ly 1997, at the YMCA of the Oz­arks, near Po­to­si, Mis­sou­ri, dur­ing a fa­mi­ly re­un­ion to cel­e­brate my par­ents’ 50th wed­ding an­ni­ver­sa­ry.

I had felt an urge to re­cord the theme of God’s eter­nal king­dom, but the words weren’t forth­com­ing. One morn­ing I woke at 5:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep (the on­ly day that I week I rose so ear­ly).

In the morn­ing si­lence, I prayed that if God want­ed this hymn writ­ten, He would give me the words. Fol­low­ing that pray­er, the lyr­ics gushed out, and the hymn was fin­ished in min­utes.

Afterward, I walked along the shore of Sun­nen Lake, mar­vel­ing at the beau­ty around me: a qui­et mist shroud­ing the wa­ter, the bright or­ange sun climb­ing over green hills, Ca­na­da geese fly­ing low across the lake.

I mused about how long na­ture had been like this, com­pared to man’s short stay on earth. God’s per­spec­tive and time span are so much larg­er than ours, it is awe­some to con­tem­plate.