Collaboration (good word — laboring with others, working together) often produces very good results. At the beginning of 1984, I went to the biennial Lutheran Youth Assembly in Hobart, Tasmania. I was working as a lay chaplain to students at that time. Also there were 2 pastors, Neal Nuske and Geoff Schirmer. Neal, an excellent pianist, discovered there were two Bösendorfer grand pianos in the main meeting hall. He hadn't brought any music with him, so he and Geoff went and bought some, including Schumann's 'Scenes from Childhood'. When I heard him playing the first piece ('Of foreign lands and people') it really moved me to suggest it could be a good song. Next day, Neal suggested Revelation 21 as a basis for words. The three of us wrote the first verse together, and I finished off the rest on my own.
We've used it often over the years, mainly as a performance piece. But it has been a community song quite a few times, and maybe it will still move into that role.
No need to hurry: the words are about 1900 years old (maybe not the English!) and the tune is 167. Eternity is timeless!
