Sibelius Monument, Helsinki

This is my song, Oh 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 sacred 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.
Oh hear my song, oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

Lloyd Stone’s simple poetry was written in 1934, between the two world wars and to be sung to the tune “Finlandia” by Sibelius. Some see links with Psalm 82:8, “Arise, O God, and rule the earth, For you shall take all nations for your own”

What if we could all sing with such double intention: pride and thanks for our own country combined with appreciation and honour that “other hearts in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine?” 

The poet here sings of a harmonic tension that rings through modern civilisations: the tension between the local and the global. All of us have local attachments. They are where we learn and love. But each of us, one day, begins to realize that we need global and worldwide relationships, too. God, and God’s world, is always larger than we thought.

In times of serious concern when war and its effects are all around us; when ‘othering’ and the minimalising of human dignity and worth are a daily pronouncement, do take two minutes to reflect on the poem above as you hear it sung to Sibelius’ music : Bing Videos

 With thanks for all you are being and doing in your places of influence and presence.

Jeff

Director of Education