It Fell Upon a Summer Day

Stepford Brooke (CHILDHOOD)

Most of my old hymnals have a small section devoted to songs especially for children, and that’s fitting, since the Lord not only loved children, but said to us that unless we become as they are, we shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Everywhere else in the world, people are encouraged to look on the child as a miniature adult, or as a burden to be borne, a trouble to endure. Only in the faith are we encouraged to do the reverse: to see the adult as a child in the making, a Christian child, supple to the will of God, trusting not in our wisdom or power, but in Him. I imagine that the children who scrambled upon the knee of Jesus were not reckoning up advantages to themselves, but were thinking merely, “I want to be with Him!”

That’s the scene for our hymn this week, It Fell Upon a Summer Day, meant to be sung by children, to the sweet and lilting melody written purposely for it, CHILDHOOD. If you’ve never heard it or sung it before, you really should do so now — I guar…