I first heard the song “Here I Am Lord” when I was in high school. This “new” hymn in my church became an instant favorite of mine. First, I say it was a “new” hymn because it was written by Dan Schutte in 1981. In hymn standards, that is brand new. Many of the songs in our hymnal were written at least a century before that.
The reason this hymn became an instant favorite of mine was its reflection of the calling of Isaiah. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet experiences a vision of the throne room of God. There, Isaiah sees God in all God’s majesty. The room is filled with God’s glory. Around God, the prophet sees heavenly beings. In the midst of this vision, God asks the question, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

I spent a lot of my childhood on our family farm in the red hills of western Oklahoma.  I loved my grandmother’s flower garden, my pony “Midnight,” the chickens and cows, and the freedom that came with being in that wide-open space.  Just north of the modest farmhouse was a hill where my brother and I spent many happy hours hiking, digging, and exploring.   My grandparents had a rule that we weren’t to go on the other side of the hill where they couldn’t see us, and we were to watch out for snakes.  I don’t remember ever seeing a snake on that red hill, and we never went over to the other side.  I guess my grandparents had their bluff in on us!  My brother and I have happy memories of that hill because we were obedient.  Had we wandered over to the other side, I’m sure we would have been banned from playing there, and if we had encountered snakes, we likely wouldn’t have wanted to go back.