As a very young girl in the late 1950’s, my father was a song leader in the acapella church we attended. Today, he would have been called the worship leader. On Saturday evenings, we always knew when he went into his bedroom and closed the door that he would be selecting his Sunday morning worship songs to lead the congregation. My sisters and I also knew that we were to be “quiet” and not disturb Daddy! On one Sunday morning our family arrived at the church building a bit earlier than normal and Daddy called me aside to tell me he was going to lead a new song. He wanted to read the words to me. Certainly feeling special, we engaged in a conversation about the song. After he read the words to “All Things Bright and Beautiful”, he sang this lovely hymn to me. I asked if I could sing along with him, so we went through the song a second time.
Over time, that became my special hymnal song with my father. I memorized all three verses, and through the years, this hymn was frequently heard in our home; my sisters enjoyed it as well. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, I can’t say that this hymn was all that well-known. But later this song became fairly popular, even as a poem to recite. Can you guess what I began to sing to my children when we rocked at night before bed? And my daughters always knew that this was Grandpa Troyan’s special song he taught their mommy when she was a little girl!
Today my heart is overjoyed to know that my grown daughters have passed along this song to their children, the third generation within my own family. In fact, one of my daughters runs a home daycare which is called, you guessed it, All Things Bright and Beautiful! And I know my sisters’ families have enjoyed this hymnal for many years as well, having purchased books with this title to distribute to the children in our families. I am grateful that I took the time to record my father singing this song before he passed away.
Here are the words for stanza one:
The little flower that opens,
The little bird that sings,
God made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
Do you have any special songs that you have passed along in your family? I always enjoy hearing from my readers!
Great-Uncle Tom reads All Things Bright and Beautiful book to Amara, my granddaughter.