When I first read this wonderful poem, I knew at once that my friend and favorite songwriter, Joel Stamoolis, was the perfect person to set it to music.
--Jess Lederman
The Giver
George MacDonald
To give a thing and take again
Is counted meanness among men;
To take away what once is given
Cannot then be the way of heaven!
But human hearts are crumbly stuff,
And never, never love enough,
Therefore God takes and, with a smile,
Puts our best things away a while.
Thereon some weep, some rave, some scorn,
Some wish they never had been born;
Some humble grow at last and still,
And then God gives them what they will.