Trace not chase

Recent rainbow in Childs Hill (found here https://twitter.com/anne_clarke)

One new feature of life for us in lock down is seeing hymns written up on screens rather than in books and so we have seen some few typos, one or two American spellings and occasionally different wording. Last Sunday we sang O love that wilt not let me go. I was surprised to see in our version

O joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I chase the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain

That morn shall tearless be.

I'm not sure when that error crept in but I think it brings in quite a different idea to George Matheson's original. Chasing rainbows is vague and ethereal, whereas tracing them through the rain is an exercise in faith.

Enfys

"tambourines and elephants are playing in the band"

Christmas 07

Haiku

This is a haiku

To say 'I don't like you' -

Please, rain, go away!

10 Rainy Day Songs

Looks like a rainy day today so taking up from where we left colours (Purple Rain) we move on to rainy songs. Nothing by Wet Wet Wet.

1. Rain by The Beatles
2. Rain Happens by Jan Akkerman
3. Rain and Tears by Aphrodite's Child
4. Raining In My Heart by Buddy Holly
5. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head by B J Thomas
6. Flowers In The Rain by The Move
7. Walking In The Rain by David Cassidy
8. Who'll Stop The Rain by Creedence Clearwater
9. Storms in Africa by Enya

10. Quiet Storm by Jan Akkerman

Matheson Quote

This thoughtful quotation is from George Matheson's Moments on the Mount published in 1884. Someone read my previous piece on Matheson here and asked about these words, which with a little difficulty I have been able to track down.

My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.
Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows.
Reveal to me that my strength was the product of that hour when I wrestled until the breaking of the day. Then shall I know that my thorn was blessed by Thee, then shall I know that my cross was a gift from Thee, and I shall raise a monument to the hour of my sorrow, and the words which I shall write upon it will be these : "It was good for me to have been afflicted."