The title is actually a Swedish tune name given to a text sung by children all over Sweden every spring as school terms end for the summer. The English text, translated by my late brother Zenos under the title Now Comes the Time for Flowers, is included with the tune in The Covenant Hymnal: A Worshipbook (Covenant Publications, 1996), No. 646.The rebirth of nature is celebrated throughout the hymn--flower'd meadows, tilled fields' noble seed. rich herbs laid out in windrows, green pastures sedately treed, etc.--all wonderful reminders of God's good Kingdom strong ... that spans the whole year long.
...The bird song ringing a many-throated laud queries our own need to be singing God's praises as well, and ends with a prayer to Jesus well worth repeating out loud, even as it is set before you: You gentle Jesu, Christus, our radiant sun, our shield, your light, your arm protect us, to you cold senses yield. Bring fires of love internal, but dump the heats of lust, prevent all hurt infernal, teach us your hand to trust.
The many-splendored flowers displayed above on our back deck in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, hanging under a beautiful ceramic bell hand crafted in Guatemala, signal the fact that every tribe and nation is both blessed by God and called to honor him as Creator. Spring and summer may come at different times in different climes and flowers may vary, but they all come nonetheless, as do fall and winter. To the only true God who was and is and will ever be we owe our lives, all things bright and beautiful surrounding, our own creative powers, and consequently our heart-felt praise.
May he save us from ever imagining that life can be as fulfilling without him as it is when we recognize and thank him for his presence beside us and within.
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