The Land of Beginning Again
(Original Version)
I wish that there were some wonderful place
Called the "Land of Beginning Again,"
Where all our mistakes, and all our heartaches,
And all of our poor selfish griefs
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door,
And never be put on again.
I wish we might come on it all unawares,
Like a hunter who finds a lost trail,
And I wish that the one whom our blunders had done
The greatest injustice of all
Could be at the gates, like a friend who still waits
For the comrades he's gladdest to hail.
It wouldn't be possible not to be kind,
In the "Land of Beginning Again",
And the ones we'd misjudged, and the ones we had grudged
Their moments of victory there,
Would find in the grasp of our loving handclasp,
More than penitent lips could explain.
--Laurel Louisa Fletcher Connely
(Christian Revision)
I have read in the Book of a wonderful place
Called the "Land of Beginning Again",
Where the sins of the past are remembered no more,
And the years, locust-eaten, the Lord doth restore,
And our filthy rags change for a garment of grace,
And the soul is begotten again.
In that land (only found by those mariners true
Who will follow the Compass and Chart),
We do know that our Lord, against whom is all sin,
He who died on the Cross, our salvation to win,
We will find at the gates our best Friend He still waits
With a welcome for each seeking heart.
With the love shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit
It is easy to love one another.
This love thinketh no evil, it envieth not;
Is so humble, unselfish, with kindness so fraught
That transformed by this love, as in Heaven above,
We shall eternally love each other.
--Carl F. Bruhn
