I'LL FLY AWAY

          One of the things that I have always appreciated about the older hymns is that very often the final verse was devoted to the topic of our future home in heaven. Personally, I wish more of today's Christian music would be devoted to that theme.  I guess heaven is a theme that we appreciate more the older we become.  For the believer it is our final destination and hope and the closer we come to experiencing it, the more meaningful it becomes.  This week's choice, written by Albert Brumley (1905-1977), shares the believers hope and future experience, using an upbeat melody. Brumley was born into a family of impoverished tenant farmers, and spent his early years picking cotton. He quit school after the tenth grade, envisioning little future beyond being a sharecropper like his father. Then, when he was sixteen, Brumley attended a singing class and discovered he had a gift for making music. Soon he was composing songs. A few years later, he briefly enrolled in a music school, but dropped out and returned to picking cotton. Brumley says that one day as he worked he was "humming the old ballad that went like this: 'If I had the wings of an angel, over these prison walls I would fly,' and suddenly it dawned on me that I could use this plot for a gospel-type song." The song Brumley was humming appears to be "The Prisoner's Song". But it was an additional three years later until Brumley worked out the rest of the song, paraphrasing one line from the secular ballad to read, "Like a bird from prison bars has flown", using prison as an analogy for earthly life.  Brumley has stated, "When I wrote it, I had no idea that it would become so universally popular." It was written in 1929 and published in 1932 by the Hartford Music company in a collection titled Wonderful Message.  And it did become an instant favorite across depression-ravaged America. It is still a standard song at bluegrass jam sessions and is often performed at funerals. Brumley wrote over 600 published songs, including "Turn Your Radio On", "I'll Meet You in the Morning", and "This World Is Not My Home". Brumley's song not only has a message of hope for the believer, but it is fun to sing because of its rousing melody that is easily harmonized. What a day that will be, when Christians take flight into the presence of the glorified Christ, and "we shall always be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:17)..  What a blessed hope we have as we continue to live in this world which is  filled with despair and evil.  We are just pilgrims here knowing that a perfect home is being prepared for us.  And one day, possibly soon, we'll fly away to God's celestial shore.  Hallelujah!  Rejoice in this truth this week.

1.     Some bright morning when this life is over, I'll fly away

To a land on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away

I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away

When I die, hallelujah by and by, I'll fly away

2.    When the shadows of this life have gone, I'll fly away

Like a bird from these prison walls I'll fly, I'll fly away

I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away

When I die, hallelujah by and by, I'll fly away

3.    Oh how glad and happy when we meet, I'll fly away

No more cold iron shackles on my feet, I'll fly away

I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away

When I die, hallelujah by and by, I'll fly away

4.     Just a few more weary days and then, I'll fly away

To a land where joy will never end, I'll fly away

I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away

When I die, hallelujah by and by, I'll fly away

You can listen to it here.    LISTEN