We Plough The Fields And Scatter
(Matthias Claudius, 1740 – 1815)

We plough the fields and scatter
The good seed on the land,
But it is fed and watered
By God’s almighty hand:
He sends the snow in winter,
The warmth to swell the grain,
The breezes and the sunshine,
And soft, refreshing rain.

Refrain:
All good gifts around us
Are sent from heaven above;
Then thank the Lord,
O thank the Lord,
For all his love.

He only is the maker
Of all things near and far;
He paints the wayside flower,
He lights the evening star;
The winds and waves obey him,
By him the birds are fed;
Much more to us, his children,
He gives our daily bread.

Refrain

We thank thee then, O Father,
For all things bright and good,
The seed time and the harvest,
Our life, our health, our food.
Accept the gifts we offer
For all thy love imparts,
And what thou most desirest,
Our humble, thankful hearts.

Refrain

————————————————————————————

That’s a really nice thanksgiving hymn. Thanking God for sustaining the world and giving us all that we need. Robin has been singing this hymn (whenever he can) with the boys before bedtime for some time now. When he first started, the boys, especially Calvin was disinterested.  He would not learn to sing, let alone hum the tune.  I thought it might be too “adult” a hymn for him. But the husband thought otherwise.  He persevered.

And then. Last night, at story time, Calvin passed me the hymn book and wanted me to sing the hymn with him.  To my pleasant surprise, he began to sing the first line of the hymn! And, in the correct tune.  I continued to sing and the boy just followed — trying his best to sing the words.  As for Mr A, don’t ever underestimate him.  He sang with us too.  Well, he managed the last syllabus of each line. 🙂

I am actually glad that Robin persevered with the singing. Calvin might not seem to be interested initially, but he was surely absorbing and learning the tune as well as the lyrics whether he was aware of it or not. I believe it is the same for Athan.

What more? This hymn ties in with the children catechism that we have been trying to teach the boys, in particular, God make all things.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 11:38 pm and is filed under daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.