May 23, 2019 (Thursday)
Yesterday’s blog was about people who dreamed of home. They had been taken from their homes and forced to travel great distances to make their new home in a foreign land. While there their captors had taunted them by asking them to sing the songs they had sung in Jerusalem. But they replied, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” They hung their harps on the willows because they had lost their joy. They dreamed of home.
When Judy Garland clicked her slippers together and said, “There’s no place like home,” did you realize she was quoting the lyrics of an old song? They were the last line of a song, “Home, Sweet Home,” from John Howard Payne’s 1823 opera Clari, or the Maid of Milan, the song’s melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne.
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there
Which seek thro’ the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere
Home! Home!
Sweet, sweet home!
There’s no place like home
There’s no place like home!
An exile from home splendor dazzles in vain
Oh give me my lowly thatched cottage again
The birds singing gaily that came at my call
And gave me the peace of mind dearer than all
Home, home, sweet, sweet home
There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home!
To hear Helen Traubel sing this beautiful song, click here.
Those of us who have a place we can call home are very fortunate and we should thank the Lord every day for this blessing.
A home is not just a physical space: it also provides roots, identity, security, a sense of belonging and a place of emotional wellbeing. In 2005, an estimated 100 million (1 in 65 at the time) people worldwide were homeless and as many as 1 billion people live as squatters, refugees or in temporary shelter, all lacking adequate housing. (Quoted from Wikipedia article on Homelessness).