I recently received a letter from a friend. This song had been in her head, and she thought of me so she wrote to share the song with me.

In the midst of sorrow it is such a blessing to know that God leads us – if we let Him. It is amazing to look back on the past year and see all the ways that God has led us. He has never failed us even when He took Hugo home to heaven to my human mind too soon.

I may never know until I get to heaven why God’s plan for our life was for Hugo to leave us so early, but I am trusting that God has a good plan in leading us on this path. And I can truly say that God does give a song even in great sorrow. He is good all the time.

While researching this song I found this interesting story about the writing of it.

Young was an ob­scure 19th Cen­tu­ry preach­er and car­pen­ter who spent a life­time hum­bly serv­ing the Lord in small rur­al com­mun­i­ties. Of­ten his fi­nan­cial sup­port was small, and it was hard on his fam­i­ly. But through all the ups and downs his faith­ful wife nev­er wav­ered in her loy­al­ty to God and to her hus­band. Af­ter a long strug­gle, the fam­i­ly was able to move in­to their own small home (which George built him­self). But then, on an oc­ca­sion when George was away preach­ing, some lo­cal thugs—who didn’t like his Gos­pel preaching—set fire to the house, and it was to­tal­ly de­stroyed. It was out of that ex­per­i­ence that Young re­af­firmed his faith in God by writ­ing God Leads Us Along.

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/y/o/young_ga.htm

In shady, green pastures, so rich and so sweet,
God leads His dear children along;
Where the water’s cool flow bathes the weary one’s feet,
God leads His dear children along.

Refrain:
Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.

Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,
God leads His dear children along;
Sometimes in the valley, in darkest of night,
God leads His dear children along.

Though sorrows befall us and Satan oppose,
God leads His dear children along;
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
God leads His dear children along.

Away from the mire, and away from the clay,
God leads His dear children along;
Away up in glory, eternity’s day,
God leads His dear children along.

~George A. Young