«His lightning flashes out across the world. The earth sees and trembles» (Psalm 97.4). 

Carl Boberg, from the Southeastern coast of Sweden, was 25 years old when he wrote the lyrics of the hymn «How Great Thou Art» in 1886, after walking in the midst of a thunderstorm after a church meeting had ended. Carl wrote a poem not knowing it would become a hymn. But later on he heard his poem had been set to the music of a well-known Swedish melody.

Over forty years later, an English missionary, Stuart Hine, and his wife heard the song for the first time in Russia, with a Russian translation of the original hymn.

While Stuart ministered in the Carpathian Mountains, one night a threatening storm unleashed. Lightning leaped across the sky throughout the mountains and it was so big that Hine was reminded of the beautiful Russian hymn that spoke of God ‘s greatness displayed in nature. From what he I knew of the Russian lyrics, possibilities for stanzas in English began popping into his mind, and that’s when the hymn as we know it today sprang up.

“I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee; How great Thou art!”

Fulgurites are formed when lightning strikes the ground, or when electricity is transmitted to a rock. Minerals become glass and they quickly cool. Fulgurites can form in sand, rock or clay and they curiously adopt the shape of lightning. They may be different colors according to the composition of sand.

That phenomenon is not very frequent, but we can extract a great lesson from it.

It is often in the midst of the most threatening storms that our essence is shown. Regardless of our differences in composition, we can reflect our Creator’s shape. But we can only do so when His greatness touches our lives.

Like Carl, and Stuart, we can allow the God of great power to whom we sing to produce a supernatural phenomenon in our lives not only for us to praise Him but also for us to motivate others to worship Him.

This hymn became one of Christianity’s favorite hymns. You may sing it today, make it your personal prayer and remember it next time you go through a storm.