Now Thank We All Our God (Nun danket alle Gott)

Now thank we all our God

With hearts and hands and voices;

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom this world rejoices.

I saw this today from MA on one of the wonderful blogs that I like to read. (On The Bright Side.) I recognized the words from a hymn. She had the name of Johann Cruger after the words, but it made me look it up since I thought while he might have written the music, the words could be by someone else.
Sure enough, the lyrics to this are by Martin Rinkart, a German Lutheran clergyman who lived from 1586 to 1649.  He wrote the words to "Now Thank We All Our God" (Nun danket alle Gott) in 1636. It was set to music by Johann Cruger about 1647.   It was translated into English by Catherine Winkworth but not until the 19th century.

Now, you might think that someone who wrote this must have had a very pleasant, uneventful life, just praising God and looking at the world through rose colored glasses.  You know...la, dee,dah....everything is wonderful, no problems here...but just look at that time period and realize that he lived through the horrors of war, the Thirty Years War. This was from 1618-1648 in Eilenburg, and because it was a walled town, many people crowded into it for refuge.   Many died from hunger and disease.  1637 became known as the year of the Great Pestilence and in that year, Pastor Rinkart conducted funeral services for as many as forty to fifty people per day. In May of that year, his wife died, and yet, surrounded by so much death, he wrote these words for his children as an offering to God.

Now thank we all our God

With hearts and hands and voices;

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom this world rejoices.

Who, from our mother's arms,

Hath led us on our way,

With countless gifts of love,

And still is ours today.

Now, I MUST tell you, I also looked up the information on the man who wrote the music, Johann Cruger, and I found his story to be fascinating also!  Look him up, I don't have any more time, I must go to my Thanksgiving dinner at my Dad's!  Take care everyone, and to all my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving and to all my friends around the world, Happy Thursday!!  Love you all and am thankful for each one of you.

Thankful for new babies being born! I LOVED making these!  :-)