A True Hymn of Thanks: "Now Thank We All Our God:

There seemed to be little or no reason to give thanks when Martin Rinckart wrote the following words:

 Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom His world rejoices

Death surrounded Rinckart, a Lutheran pastor in the German town of Eilenburg.  He was conducting 40 to 50 funerals a day as his walled city was plagued by epidemic and famine.  Much of Europe was in the throes of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), in which hostilities between Roman Catholics and Protestants was a major factor.  Eilenburg was overcrowded as refugees fled from surrounding areas.

Rinckart had been one of four pastors in the town until one fled from the crisis and the other two died and were buried by Rinckart.  In all, he is said to have buried more than 4,000 people in the town.  His wife was in this number.

Somehow, amid personal and community-wide sorrow, the pastor wrote the words to this hymn, and he and his children said the words each night.

As we face various inconveniences in the holiday season, we wonder at the grace and faith that sustained Rinckart, enabling him to write these words:

Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom His world rejoices;
Who from our mother's arms
Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today.

Oh, may this bounteous God
Through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts
And blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace
And guide us when perplexed
And free us from all ills
In this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God
The Father now be given,
The Son, and Him who reigns
With them in highest heaven:
The one eternal God,
Whom earth and heaven adore!
For thus it was, is now,
And shall be evermore.