Wednesday’s thoughts concerning the sermon for Sunday, October 8th
Natalie Sleeth is a hymn writer whose work we are featuring this Sunday. She wrote many anthems for children and one of her finest pieces of work is entitled, “One Bright Candle”. This is what she had to say about that song:
“This piece came about because of the sad and premature death of a very special young girl from Manchester, Maine –Samantha Smith. I didn’t of course know her personally but she had caught my attention because she wrote to the Russian premiere (who answered her letter) about world peace. A few years after that event she was co-starring with Robert Wagner in a new TV series and after four episodes had been filmed in London she and her father were returning home to Maine when their plane crashed. I once heard Samantha interviewed on the Today Show, and she was such a sparkling, enthusiastic and sincere person (with no obvious egotism about what she had done), that she captured my heart as well as the hearts of all who watched her. When she died so suddenly, I somehow wanted to write a piece that ‘highlighted’ the idea that one person can make a difference – now and then, here and there – so that was the thesis behind ‘One Bright Candle’.”
One child can make a difference in the world. Apparently, when Golda Meir and Anwar Sadat were meeting with President Carter at Camp David the tensions ran high until Golda brought out her pictures of her grandchildren and Sadat brought out the pictures of his. Then the two world leaders were able to look at each other as people. Children do make a difference.
Do you know any examples of a time when children turned lives around like that?
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If you have thoughts, please leave a comment with this post. For personal thoughts write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. I look forward to your ideas.
- Charles
