Young Karolina had a special relationship with her father, Jonas Sandell. She was a weak, frail child who took solace in her father’s loving strength. When other children were outside playing, she preferred to sit with her father in his study where he prepared his sermons.
Jonas Sandell was a Lutheran pastor in southern Sweden. He was a faithful pastor, loving husband, and kind father who gave his daughter Karolina, whom he called Lina, a beautiful example of the loving care of the Father in Heaven.
As a child, Lina was afflicted by partial paralysis. Although her compassionate, caring parents had taken her to the most skillful physicians in Sweden, the doctors sadly told them that their daughter had no chance for a full recovery. She was unable to walk without assistance and had to be dressed and tended to by her parents. Despite her physical affliction, Lina was content with her lot in life. She rested in the fact that she was under the care of the Great Physician Who does “all things well.”
One day, when she was twelve years old, Lina was not feeling well and stayed home from church. Her parents walked from the parsonage to the church where Pastor Sandell delivered his sermon. After the service, her parents walked home to behold an astonishing sight: Lina had dressed herself and was walking! She had no explanation for her parents except that God had cured her and made her well.
After this memorable experience of the power of Divine healing, Lina began to experiment with poetic verses in an effort to give God thanks for His mercy to her. From a young age, she evidenced the ability that God had gifted her to express herself with the pen. Lina published her first book of poetry when she was only sixteen.
Lina Sandell’s trust in God in spite of trials is reflected in one of her most beloved poems: “Blott en Dag.” The title in English is “Day by Day.”
Day by day, and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He, Whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
Gives unto each day what He deems best,
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.
Little did Lina Sandell know that God was preparing her for one of the greatest trials that a precious daughter could ever endure.
Into her twenties, she continued to live at home with her parents. She served as her father’s secretary and helper. Lina Sandell also continued to write poetry, eventually writing almost 700 poems!
When Miss Sandell was twenty-six years old, she accompanied her father on a boat ride across Lake Vättern, one of the most iconic lakes in all of Sweden. The lovely outing with her father turned into tragedy, however, when Pastor Sandell lost his balance and fell overboard into the lake. There was nothing that Lina Sandell could do! She helplessly watched her father struggle in the water until he drowned before her tear-filled eyes.
Such a tragic experience could have caused Lina Sandell to lose heart, but her faith in her Heavenly Father remained firm and constant. Another of her beloved poems, titled in English “Children of the Heav’nly Father,” expresses the loving trust of a child in a wise and kind Father.
Children of the Heav’nly Father,
Safely in His bosom gather;
Nestling bird nor star in Heaven
Such a refuge e’er was given.
God His own doth tend and nourish;
In His holy courts they flourish.
From all evil things He spares them;
In His mighty arms He bears them.
Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord His children sever;
Unto them His grace He showeth,
And their sorrows all He knoweth.
Tho’ He giveth or He taketh,
God His children ne’er forsaketh;
His the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy.
When she was thirty-five years old, Lina Sandell married Oscar Berg, a statesman who was a member of the Parliament of Sweden. The Lord blessed them with a child, but the baby died at birth. The words of Lina Sandell-Berg’s hymns gave her strength and comfort to bear yet another deep sorrow with trust and submission in her loving, omnipotent God. Indeed, in trials our faith is brought along toward maturity.
Lina Sandell-Berg lived to the age of seventy. By the time of her death in 1903, her hymns were sung not only in Scandinavia, but all across Europe and in places as far away as the United States and Australia.
She was an active participant in the religious revival that swept through Sweden in the 1850s–60s, and she was closely tied to the Pietists who were involved in this revival. Some of the ecclesiastical leaders of the established church were skeptical of the evangelical emphasis of the new preaching and the new hymns. They petitioned the king to ban the preaching of evangelical ministers, such as Carl Rosenius and Oscar Ahnfelt. Called into the king’s presence, Oscar Ahnfelt sang one of Mrs. Sandell-Berg’s hymns. With tears in his eyes, the king said, “You may sing as much as you like in both of my kingdoms!”
Lina Sandell-Berg died of typhoid fever at the age of seventy. She must have rejoiced to be united again with her father and her baby in the “holy courts” of her Heavenly Father.
Sources and Further Reference:
Johnson, Guye. Treasury of Great Hymns and Their Stories. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1986.
Morgan, Robert. Then Sings My Soul. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.
