Song Memory: How Great Thou Art

This is an old hymn, and it has great significance for me. I don't recall being familiar with this old hymn, well known as it may be, during my Catholic upbringing. I came to know it later on, during my spiritual awakening in adulthood. I have mentioned before how during my formative period as a 'new convert' I had gladly and willingly eschewed my former worldly musical tastes and replaced them with listening to only Christian music and hymns. I found it necessary to do so for many years, as the layers of my old life and habits were being peeled away and being replaced with a renewed heart and mind. I believe God asks this for many of His followers, it's just a time when we have to draw close and focus on Him and leave our past behind us. Music was a big part of my life, and so I needed a break from the secular and worldly aspects of it for awhile.

My earliest recollection of this song is when I heard the character Julia, played by Dixie Carter, sing it (here) on the TV show Designing Women. I was watching a rerun of the show during one of those middle-of-the-night baby feeding sessions. (Sometimes I liked it silent and peaceful and sometimes I needed a little distraction.)

Later on, and during my short jaunt in another state, this song was on a cassette tape by some local or regional Southern Gospel group that played at my church. (I have another artist's version here.) At that time we lived in a small, rented farmhouse in a rural area of a wild, wonderful state. I had only one little child then, and we went on daily walks and hikes through country roads, fields and the mountainous wooded areas. There were rocky cliffs, and even a nice sized waterfall within hiking distance. In my mind I can still see the lushness of spring, appearing wet and minty green after a cold, barren winter. In the late spring and early summer the orange daylilies were bursting onto the side of the road. Later on came the vivid autumn leaves, with their palette of my favorite colors, browns, golden yellow, burnt orange and deep scarlet red. Place that against a blue sky and the beauty is amazing. I often sang quite audibly on our hikes, I am just that kind of person, and I heard it clears the bears. It was living there, hiking there and driving on those country roads that the words of this song came gloriously alive for me. That song was exactly the picture of my life then. I was a bit solitary, with just a small child as my companion, wandering through the woods, hearing the brooks, pondering the greatness of God and the beauty of the creation He made, and really falling in love with Him.





photos byJeffery(lily)
b3nscott(barn)
respres(stream)