There's nothing quite like Good Old German and English hymns, is there? One year for Christmas my husband gave me the Oxford Book of Carols--now THAT is a book! I guess in American tradition there isn't so much of a leadup to Easter, but I'm happy that we still get to celebrate some with music. Today--after the kids all got chocolate and eggs and had a snowball fight and were therefore all riled up to sit though a series of talks on Easter--we sang, among others, that lovely hymn He is Risen, by Cecil Alexander and Joachim Neander. (Neander also wrote Lobe den Herren--Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, which you may know.) I have to say, I really like German music from the 1600s. Aside from the music itself, I always like to think about dear Joachim. You see, he was a pastor around Duesseldorf and used to wander in a valley near his house while thinking up sermons. The word for valley in German is "tal." Or, as it used to be spelled, "thal." So that area became known as Neander's Valley, or Neanderthal. And in the mid-1800s, that is of course where Neanderthal man was discovered. And when we were first married and lived in Bonn, we visited the local museum in town and there for our personal introduction was the skull of Herr Neanderthal himself. So whenever I sing any of Herr Reverend Neander's hymns, I can't help thinking of the other Herr Neander. Um. I'm not sure how Easter-related that is, after all. Suffice it to say that I'm grateful for the experiences I've had that have shown me the reality of God, and for the opportunity He gives us to dig and search and experiment and discover the mysteries of the earth we live on.
Right now, though, the troops are making motions for an Easter egg hunt--gotta don the ears and go!
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