Once you
hear some details of how her life and this song developed, see what you think.
Did Babbie Mason know what she was doing when she decided to step away from
teaching as she approached 30 years old? Maybe she already had something in
mind a few years earlier when she moved to Georgia (she and her family now live
in Carroll County, west of Atlanta – see the map), from where she wrote “All
Rise”. Babbie must have had thousands of worship services in her experience by
the time the mid-1980s arrived, so it’s not really much of a mystery what spiritual
thought sparked the poetic words she crafted for this song. They summon images
of an episode she probably had heard illustrated numerous times, a time that
she and others had already been dreaming about – Eternity. On Easter,
especially, it’s good to allow the mental imagery to take over for a few
minutes. Join in!
Though a specific
downbeat incident motivated Babbie’s poetry in “All Rise”, the end result expressed
in the song she wrote was at the opposite end of the spectrum from what her emotions
initially told her how she should feel. Babbie had failed in something she
cared dearly about – a music ministry that she really wanted to base her life
upon. She had just returned from a music competition, one in which she felt she’d
failed, coming in just third. In the aftermath, walking soberly through her home
a few weeks later, it suddenly dawned on her the key words that spurred “All
Rise” – all believers would one day stand before the Judge of all the earth!
So, how did a mere competition rank with that thought? Here was a pastor’s
daughter, who had played the piano in church services as a youngster and must
have heard her dad speak numerous times on the subject of the afterlife. Babbie
had begun her adult life as a teacher in her home state of Michigan, and then
at age 25 moved to Georgia, where she continued on that path, at least at
first. By the middle of the 1980s she decided to pursue music performance
professionally, and one can surmise that “All Rise” was among the first efforts
she recorded in this new venture. Though she was far from Michigan, one can
presume the mental scenery that she’d remembered from all those sermons growing
up must have still been present. Imagine arriving in His presence, to receive
the reward of being with Him and being made new yourself; this was what stuck
with Babbie from Michigan to Georgia. While Babbie envisioned a ‘holy hush’
(v.1) among all the assembled, the throng wouldn’t be silent for long. ‘We were
singing alleluias’ (v.2), and moreover, who could sit still while this was
happening? ‘All rise’, she hears the Spirit say, again and again. Arise! Was
Babbie indeed thinking of us mimicking Jesus rising at His Father’s command? If
it was indeed Easter when Babbie wrote her words, that would be appropriate,
but those stirring thoughts she penned
in “All Rise” cannot be confined to a single week of the year. It’s too big.
(And, by the way, Babbie returned to that music competition the following year,
and was the winner. How appropriate, she won when she focused on the big win in
heaven, after experiencing a loss here on earth.)
Babbie
might have had the words of any of several scriptures to stimulate her musical
composition about people rising. Just think of what the ancient apostle said to
a group from Thessalonica (1 Thess. 4:16). Or, how about what this same writer
said to those in Ephesus (5:14)? He said much the same in the presence of the
highest authority of his time (Acts 26:23). Could we say that he too was
inspired, years later, by a rising among his own generation, when the Son had said
that a guy named Lazarus would emerge from a grave (John 11:23-24)? What about what an ancient prophet said to
stir the people of his time (Isaiah 60:1)? There’s many, many more. God must
want us to know something, beyond a shadowy doubt. This rising isn’t to be
missed. Babbie is just underscoring it for all of us one more time. If you feel
defeated like Babbie did that day in Atlanta, think how that earthly episode ranks
–or really doesn’t – with what awaits you and me on the great gettin’ up
morning! Now, get up!
The source
for the song story is the book “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever”, by Lindsay
Terry, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008.
Watch this
recording of the author-composer singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7EFZgKLrtQ
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