We could say that she was drawing inspiration from an ancient songwriter, and was probably reading this poet’s words in a particular style. Grace Hawthorne (her actual first name begins with J.) was a poetess, who in the middle of a writing career that was focused on speaking to children through music, pondered what it would be like to “Ride the Morning Winds”. So, it must have seemed rather natural to try to communicate through the thoughts of someone who thought of himself as a child before his Creator-God. She wasn’t thinking like a meteorologist to produce something for the evening news (including a surface map like this one, showing the Great Blizzard along the American East Coast in 1888). No, Grace was not so focused on the phenomenology of the weather. She was thinking about the One who is phenomenal, the One who makes the wind and us.
It was 1980, and Grace Hawthorne had already spent much of her time professionally writing for children’s minds. From musicals to hymns, Grace tried to see the world as a child does. We don’t know what precisely sparked Grace’s imagination when she composed a couple of verses that included thoughts about wind, but we can guess what she was doing. The words she penned are remarkably like those that the psalmist-king David wrote when he lauded his Creator for intimately knowing and staying in touch with those He makes. Did Grace read from a Living Bible (LB) paraphrase as she imagined the ‘morning winds’ (Psalm 139: 9-12) and the extent of His reach? The LB was intended for young minds, according to its editor (Kenneth N. Taylor), so it’s not surprising that someone like Grace would draw on its pages for a song poem. More than the wind, the psalmist David also saw God overcoming the seas and darkness, too. If that’s true, for both the child and the adult, a relationship with Him cuts one of two ways. You cannot run if you’re trying to avoid Him. Right, Jonah?! On the other hand, if you have no where else to turn, He’s there. What would Mary Magdalene say about this? Grace Hawthorne sounds like a Mary Magdalene-type of believer. She thought her world was ‘frightening’ and ‘frantic’ (v.1), a place in which she sometimes felt lost, but knew she could find ‘my part’ and be shown how ‘to walk’ (v.2) with His guidance. That’s a lot of good to tell kids, and the rest of us, too. Grace’s song coaxes one to seek out the rest of David’s words, and see just how inside myself is this God.
He knows me…that’s the rest of what Grace may have discovered, if she didn’t already know it, when she read all of Psalm 139. How can I go all those places, by riding the wind? Or see through the darkness, or travel to the farthest oceans? It’s not that He’s here to make my life amazing, though He can. Perhaps He just wants me to know that He knows me, you know? I’m an image of Him. He says so (Genesis 1:26), right from the start. Think on that, and those morning winds, wide seas, and deep darkness seem less daunting, don’t they? Just grab hold, and see where He can take you. For now, and in the time to come – you won’t want to miss it!
Biographic information on the author here: https://hymnary.org/text/god_the_father_god_of_glory
See here also: https://www.hopepublishing.com/403/
See the following for the bible paraphrase that the author may have been using: The Living Bible - Wikipedia
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