From the age of 15 I have known the words of Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, almost off by heart.
No, I wasn't a member of the "Scripture Union".
To be honest I wasn't even all that interested in religion, although having attended Sunday School, The Life Boys, The Boys' Brigade and a couple of Church Youth Clubs, I was never really far from a church.
No!..... The reason that I knew the words is that I was, and still am, a Byrds Fan.
When I first (knowingly) heard these words in late 1965 they were received with great anticipation as a follow up to the Byrds July hit of that year, 'Mr. Tambourine Man', which is still my favourite record of all time.
The Byrds ‘Turn Turn Turn’ had that same ‘jingly jangly’ guitar work of its Dylan penned predecessor, but this song had meaning in the lyrics.
Pete Seeger ‘wrote’ the song in 1959. The words are taken straight out of Ecclesiastes, but Seeger added the line "a time for peace, I swear it's not too late" and has been receiving loyalties on it ever since.
At a time when there was a great anti war / peace movement being born, the extra line gave it chart appeal but, to me personally, the original words just put everything into perspective.
There is a time to every purpose under heaven.
As we head off into a new year full of expectation, and putting the past firmly where it belongs, it is always good to turn (turn turn) over a new personal leaf and try to do all the things that we should be doing anyway.
In the long run, however, there is a time to every purpose under heaven.
Since this is being written from a ‘Wee Congregation in Clydebank, Scotland”, the home of 'guid new years', I will leave you with a wee prayer from probably the best known Scot of all.
Then let us pray that come it may
as come it will for a' that
(There is after all, a time to every purpose under heaven)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth
Shall bear the gree an' a' that
For a' that an' a' that
It's coming yet for a' that
That man to man, the world o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.
Robert Burns
Please do have a good and peaceful 2012...I swear it’s not too late!
Recent Comments