In recent days, I had opportunity to sing that great
American Spiritual “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and have always assumed it arose from
the cotton fields of the Deep South. And its call did resonate across those
white expanses, but it did not originate there.
A USA Today article indicates a couple of slaves, Wallace
and Minerva Willis, who were working at a Native American boys school in
Oklahoma authored the song mid-nineteenth century. The headmaster of the school
saw such merit in the song, he sent it to the Fisk Jubilee Singers in
Nashville. Eventually the Fisk singers took the song on tour and performed it
before Queen Victoria, whose affirmation propelled the song into music history.
Music historians say the song was also used as a cryptic way
of communicating a slave’s escaping to Canada, sometimes even changing chariot
to Harriet indicating Harriet Tubman and her Underground Railroad.
According to the USA Today article, “Sweet Chariot ‘was a sign of hope that
someone was coming to help’ says James Martin, a spirituals expert and Julliard
graduate. ‘So it has always been not just an inspirational hope but a real
hope.’”
Not to argue with a Julliard graduate, but the hope of heaven is "not just an inspirational hope," it IS a real hope. Someone, capital S, is coming to help.
Not to argue with a Julliard graduate, but the hope of heaven is "not just an inspirational hope," it IS a real hope. Someone, capital S, is coming to help.
While pregnant with my third child, we also had a big family
wedding planned at Christmas in which our entire family played a part. I had a
dream one night in November, in which a friend came to me and said, “Do
you see that?” I looked in the direction she pointed and could see through a
haze a team of white horses and a chariot. She said, “It’s going to be right
there until you need it.” I awoke from the dream a little scared. All I could
think of was “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” and though I was ready to go be with
the Lord, I had small children and wanted to stay with my family. So, I prayed
and relinquished the whole thing to the Lord. I didn’t want to live in fear.
Weeks later, I began to have problems with the pregnancy. I
went to the doctor, and we saw the baby’s heartbeat. He told me the chances of
miscarriage were miniscule after that, but, later in the early hours of morning, I miscarried and
held that tiny baby in my hand. I had to have an emergency DNC and no one knew
but my husband and sister until days later, because of the immediacy of the
wedding.
I left the hospital and went home to change sheets for out
of town family arriving, feeling very sorry for myself. Then I remembered the
dream―the horses and chariot, and knew God had prepared me for what happened. He had sent his royal escort to pick up my baby that morning.
Someone came to help, and I sensed God’s presence in such a powerful way in
those days.
In the same way, Someone is coming to help as my dad lies in
a hospital bed near the last moments of his life this morning. God has a royal
escort for him, too, waiting for just the right time to arrive.
My friends, that is a REAL hope, indeed.
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry Steve home.
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry Steve home.
“What
a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master
Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new
life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the
future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day
is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole” (I Peter 1:3 The Message).
Take a moment and listen to an original recording here from 1909 of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and their rendition of "'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."