Our Favorite Things #19 – Favorite Hymn

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Melinda and I took at least two hours to figure out which hymns were our favorites. Goodness! There are so many new hymns that it’s fun to learn them. But a few favorites stick in our minds.

15. Melinda’s Favorite Hymn

It’s polite to let my sister go first on these things, so I graciously said, “You first, big sister.” She likes “Blessed Assurance” best of all. She also enjoys the story of how this hymn came into being. Here’s the story.

A few years ago, back in 1873, two friends were visiting. Fanny Crosby, who is blind, visited her friend Phoebe Knapp one day. At the same time, the family was having a new, very large pipe organ delivered and set up. The organ wasn’t quite ready to go, so Phoebe sat down at the piano and started playing a tune she had just made up.

“What do you think the tune says, Fanny?” she asked.

“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine,” answered Fanny, drawing from her mental storage of scripture knowledge. She then continued: “Oh what a foretaste of glory divine, Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit , washed in His blood.”

Fanny knew all about being blessed with assurance. She became blind at six weeks of age, when a doctor put the wrong medicine on her infant eyes. All she had was a cold infection, but a “mustard poultice” was clearly not the right treatment. But what others may consider evil, God used. Fanny’s blindness has blessed millions with her songs.

Read and Listen to “Blessed Assurance”

15. Andi’s Favorite Hymn

I enjoy so many of Fanny Crosby’s song and I sure like her attitude. When I think about complaining about something so silly as cleaning out the stalls, a poem Fanny wrote when she was eight years old slips into my memory. I should be as content as Fanny!

Oh, what a happy child I am
Although I cannot see
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be. — Fanny Crosby, age 8

But I believe my favorite hymn is the one I sang to Jenny, Lin Mei, and Kum Ju on the night we were trapped in a basement warehouse, where we were waiting for our doom–being taken aboard a ship and sent to the Orient. That memory still gives me shivers. But that song came to me during our dark time, and because of that, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” became my favorite hymn. It comforted not only me, but Jenny and the two little Chinese girls as well.

Here is the excerpt from that terrible night:

The words and melody to a popular new Sunday school song popped into Andi’s head. With a quavering voice, she made her way through three verses of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” By the time she finished the last line, her voice was strong and unwavering.

“I don’t know that one,” Jenny admitted. “It’s nice. I do feel a mite better.”

Lin Mei snuggled closer to Andi. “Your Jesus-God strong. I go to mission home. Learn more.”

“What a Friend We Have in Jesus” was written by a preacher named Joseph Scriven. He wrote the poem way back in 1855 to comfort his mother back in Ireland, while he was living in Canada. Later, in 1868, another man, Charles C. Converse, wrote the music. It’s a lovely song, if you ask me, and flows so well.

Read and Listen to “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”