The Sun Is Always Shining
I hope you don’t mind another message about a hymn and rain. It’s been a hymn and rain sort of week for me.
Yesterday morning Ray and I joined our daughter, Mary Evelyn, and her children for the first day of auditions for the play she plans to produce in September. I haven’t heard Mary Evelyn’s title yet, but the subject of this year’s Homeschool Dramatic Society (HDS) performance is the blind hymnwriter, Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915). Among her 8,000 hymns are these favorites: “Blessed Assurance” and “Safe in the Arms of Jesus.” One of the many reasons I am excited about this year’s play is that both the cast and the audience may hear some of her hymns for the first time. If you aren’t too far away or are traveling in the area this September, mark the dates and times for one of the five performances at the Cookeville Performing Arts Center in Cookeville, Tennessee:
September 14 at 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
September 15 at 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
September 16 at 7:00 p.m.
You can learn more about the purpose behind the Homeschool Dramatic Society in this post I wrote way back in 2013.
I was a proud Little when Mary Evelyn’s three oldest children took their turns at auditioning. Her 12-year-old daughter also auditioned for a solo. She chose to sing “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere,” practicing alone so that not even her mama had heard her sing it. We have one more day of auditions before Mary Evelyn has the difficult job of assigning parts. Every homeschooled child who auditions for a part in an HDS play gets one. The auditions help Mary Evelyn see their skills so she can assign each child an appropriate part.
Day after day this week, God has been blessing our area with needed rain. On the way home, Ray said, “I thought the sun was trying to peek out earlier this morning, but it looks like it’s not going to make it.” We agreed that the forecasted high of only 73 comfortable degrees was such a blessing that we didn’t mind a cloudy sky. Then I realized that the sun actually was shining. We just couldn’t see it because of the clouds.
The sun is always shining. It’s just that sometimes there are clouds between us and the sunshine. That’s a reality that I plan to hold on to.
My thoughts went back to the words of the song our granddaughter sang yesterday morning. Jessie Brown Pounds (1861-1921) wrote “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere” in the late 1800s. The hymn was sung at the funeral of President William McKinley. Following are the first verse and the chorus:
Somewhere the sun is shining,
Somewhere the songbirds dwell;
Hush, then, thy sad repining,
God lives, and all is well.
Somewhere, somewhere,
Beautiful isle of somewhere;
Land of the true, where we live anew,
Beautiful isle of somewhere.
I can imagine that many a homeschooling mama would appreciate the message of the second verse at the end of a particularly challenging day.
Somewhere the day is longer,
Somewhere the task is done;
Somewhere the heart is stronger,
Somewhere the guerdon won.
I had to look up the meaning of guerdon. It means “reward.”
Whatever you do, do your work heartily,
as for the Lord rather than for men,Â
knowing that from the Lord you will receive
the reward of the inheritance.
It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
Colossians 3:23-24
As Christians, we look forward to the time when the gift of God’s reward is won, when all tasks are done, our hearts are strong, and we live in endless day.
Oh, dear. Now I am thinking of yet another hymn that fits so well with these thoughts, “The Unclouded Day” by J. K. Alwood. Here goes:
O they tell me of a home far beyond the skies,
O they tell me of a home far away;
O they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise;
O they tell me of an unclouded day.
Refrain:
O the land of cloudless day,
O the land of an unclouded sky.
O they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise,
O they tell me of an unclouded day.
O they tell me of a home where my friends have gone,
O they tell me of that land far away,
Where the tree of life in eternal bloom
Sheds its fragrance thro’ the unclouded day. [Refrain]
O they tell me of the King in His beauty there,
And they tell me that mine eyes shall behold
Where He sits on the throne that is whiter than snow,
In the city that is made of gold. [Refrain]
O they tell me that He smiles on His children there,
And His smile drives their sorrows all away;
And they tell me that no tears ever come again,
In that lovely land of unclouded day. [Refrain]
. . . and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes;
and there will no longer be any death;
there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain;
the first things have passed away.
Revelation 21:4