The Cracked Acorn: New Day

Ah, a perfect day! I was leaving the town restaurant where I had enjoyed a country breakfast. I felt like Columbus sailing in search of the shores of the promised land. Traffic had not started to move. A couple of birds were jaywalking trying to find the early morning meal for the brood. Nearby off the main street, the church tower was pealing out the morning religious melodies. I kept humming. Finally, I went through the hymn book collection and found this song in a small hymn supplement by the A.C.U. Press, Abilene, Texas.

Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
praise for them springing fresh from the Word!

Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven,
like the first dewfall on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness on the wet garden,
sprung in completeness where His feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning,
born of the one light Eden saw play.
Praise with elation, praise ev’ry morning,
God’s recreation of the new day!

When Eleanor Farjeon wrote MORNING HAS BROKEN in 1931 the “Star-Spangled Banner” became our national anthem. Television was still a baby yet to be born. The radio was still a big hit with families that gathered around it to hear plays and the news. The Empire State Building was completed. Life was hard and stressful. The husband could be out of work and might throw a fit because there was no bread. Times were tough and lines for anything to be bought were very long. If you had any money you could buy a new Chevrolet which cost from $474 to $650.People of the 30s tried to chase away the blues and hard times by going to the movies. Tickets were very cheap and Saturday matinees were the thing. You could see the Marx Brothers in Animal Crackers, a Day At the Races, Duck Soup, Monkey Business, Night at the Opera, Room Service, Horsefeathers, or Laurel and Hardy in Flying Deuces, Sons of the Desert and of course, W.C. Fields in It’s a Gift.

We should always be thankful for a new day touched by God’s creatures. The day He has given us could have dew, rain, and the sweetness of growing grass. The beauty of a wet garden is there to awaken our senses and remind us that we are in the beauty of our Maker. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore, will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:22-25)

Are you curious about Eleanor Farjeon (Feb. 13,1881-June 5, 1965)? She started reading at five and was fitted with heavy glasses at eight and came from a family of writers. She never married. She was home-schooled and loved books. She wrote 74 books and plays for children and 11 plays for adults. She was a friend of Robert Frost and a friend of many poets of her day. As a child, she spent many hours in the attic where many family books were stored. She is remembered as the author of MORNING HAS BROKEN.