Jenny Lind was the best known singer in the world during her lifetime. Born in Sweden in 1820, known as the Swedish Nightingale, she had a brilliant career in opera and on the concert stage. P.T. Barnum brought her to the US in 1850, where she made highly successful tours and concert appearances, and became famous and wealthy. But in 1852, while still a young woman, she gave up opera and the stage. Considering her voice a gift from God, she is believed to have said, “I will sing for God.” This she did for the rest of her life, and donated generously to charitable and Christian causes. Her life teaches us all, as the Bible says, “our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and we are not our own… we have been bought with a price.” We are therefore called on to “glorify God” with what we have received. We have no right to boast of ourselves. As someone has said, “By the grace of God, I am what I am.” And that’s true of us all.

Pastor Alex Rockwell