“Like the straightness of the pine trees, let me upright be.”

Hymn: “God, Who Touchest Earth with Beauty” – Mary S. Edgar (1889-1973)
Common Tune: GENEVA; Newer Hymnals use BUTLER

It is Vacation Bible School season. Children are plodding through jungles, climbing Mount Everest, lassoing the stray horses, launching into outer space, etc. – all in an attempt to learn more about the Bible and its Author… and the Author’s Son!

I learned this hymn to the GENEVA tune when I was in a two-week VBS at my home church in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s – whenever the Sunday School Board included it in the curriculum. The text is by a Canadian who spent most of her life running camps for girls, exposing them to the wonders of nature. It comes as no surprise that her most famous hymn-text is “God, Who Touchest Earth with Beauty.”

At my first exposure to this, I was most attracted to the tune; for me at least, it was fresher and more interesting than our usual song repertoire on Sundays. The text didn’t really work into my system until years later when at opening chapel services at Carson Newman College, this was one of the hymns that served as a prayer for the new school year and introduced this freshman to the hearty sound of a couple of thousand students and faculty singing this wonderful hymn that I recalled from VBS years before. Mary Charlotte Ball opened the organ up like I’d never heard the one at my home church, and Dr. Louis Ball improvised at the piano. It was obviously an unforgettable experience.

This line about living upright-ly continues to resonate within me – the importance of the straight-backed, straight-ahead spiritual walk is still important to me. As with many things I learned as a child in Vacation Bible School, this and other VBS hymnlines have carried me through some tough decisions and unsteady pathways.

For young children and retired folks and everyone in between, this prayer still works. May we sing it over and over to ourselves all this day long. It may not be as fun and upbeat as what you’ll hear at VBS commencement services, but for me at least, it is definitely a keeper!