Carolina Sandell was the daughter of a Lutheran pastor in Froderyd, Sweden, and was very close to her father. As a child she spent her hours playing quietly in her father’s study as he worked on sermons. She was born on October 3, 1832. She grew up to become Sweden’s most celebrated author of Gospel hymns, and she wrote so many that she is often called “the Fanny Crosby of Sweden.” During her lifetime she wrote over 650 hymns.
Like many Christians, Carolina learned that when pain and tragedy strike, God may use that experience to deepen our faith. When she was 26, Carolina, or Lina (pronounced Lie-nah) as she liked to be called, experienced a tragedy which profoundly affected the course of her life. She was with her father on a ferry boat crossing Lake Vattern in Sweden. They were on the outer deck leaning against the rail enjoying the beauty of the day. Suddenly the ship lurched, and before her eyes, her father was thrown overboard and drowned before anyone could attempt to rescue him.
She wrote this hymn shortly after this event. You can see in the words how dependent she was on the Lord to carry her through this tragedy. Lina had written hymns before, but now she poured out her broken heart in an endless stream of beautiful songs. Her hymns mightily influenced the revival that swept across Scandinavia after 1850. Of all her hymns, this is the one for which she is most known.
