My dear friend, Randy Cox, sent me the initial lyrics to this song in an email when my grandmother was dying in a hospital in Anderson Indiana. As my grandmother slowly slipped away, in between being at her bedside, praying with her, and singing songs of the faith that would ultimately usher her into heaven, I would sneak away to the hospital chapel to create a song out of Randy‘s initial lyrics, adding a few of my own.
Almost all of the phrases are his lyrically, with only a few exceptions where I changed them to fit the melody. It’s one of my favorite songwriting collaborations and I was privileged to be able to sing it at my grandmothers funeral.
My prayer is that this song will be a comfort to many in the time of Covid when we can’t be as near to each other as we would like. I also hope it will be a help as we try to reach out to each other across so many cultural divides.
A note about the making of the video
I had nothing to do with it. I asked a person outside of my faith, outside of my circle of close relationships, and outside of my familiar worldview to bring their own interpretation to the making of this video. What she did with it floored me.
Thank you for watching it. Thank you for singing it. Thank you for sharing it with others.
—Rick Lee James