Grace, God’s amazing grace – there’s nothing more powerful or humbling to receive. When I think of grace, the words to a favorite hymn come to my mind:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but, now I’m found,
was blind but now I see.
T’was grace that taught my heart to fear.
And grace, my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed!
Amazing Grace is easily recognizable; estimates claim that the hymn is performed roughly 10 million times annually. Over the years, musicians and singers from Elvis Presley and Andrea Bocelli to Celine Dion have performed Amazing Grace. Even former President Obama used Amazing Grace during the eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a victim of the Charleston church shooting in 2015.
It’s a powerful song that tells of the writer’s journey to discover this grace. After learning of the song’s history and the story of its author, John Newton, I have come to appreciate this powerful hymn in a different, deeper way.
John Newton wrote Amazing Grace in 1779 after a lifetime of experiences.
He had a troubled childhood; his mother died when he was six. He was a sailor in the British Navy, only to go AWOL and be punished for deserting. He said that he contemplated a murder-suicide of his ship captain, but he didn’t go through with it. He was so fond of profanity, that he made sailors uncomfortable. And he was such a bad shipmate that one crew chained him, starved him, and sold him into slavery. But after being freed from slavery, he became a captain of a slave ship himself.
He was definitely the “wretch” he wrote about in his song.
As I read about his life and his journey to Amazing Grace, I now understand and appreciate the depth of his gratefulness when he wrote these words: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. Newton understood that nothing he could ever do would justify God’s gift of grace. The gift we have all been given has already been paid for with the death and resurrection of God’s son, Jesus.
The last verse has always been my favorite. It gives us a glimpse of heaven – and how long we will be able to praise God for His wonderful gift!
When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun;
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’ve first begun.
Bev Barnes, Administrative Assistant, Communications Team
