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The White Cliffs of Dover
During WWII it wasn’t bluebirds that were flying over the White Cliffs of Dover, England; it was a vast number of German bombers heading for and other places. Night after night after night they came and rained down death and destruction so the children were moved away to the country, away to anywhere presumed safe, away from their own little bedrooms and from home. Life for the entire population had changed and it’s no surprise that for some, dismay was approaching despair as the news told of German success in battle, German threats and the nightly reign of terror brought it all home. Two songwriters, & Kent, took note of it all and of the many people who wouldn’t and couldn’t believe that the tyrant would win in the end. They wrote a song that expressed that undying hope and assurance: The White Cliffs of . Here’s how they put it in a song that even we children sang without really understanding it:
There’ll be blue birds over the White Cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow, just you wait and see.
There’ll be love and laughter
And peace ever after
Tomorrow, when the world is free.
The shepherd will tend his sheep
The valley will bloom again
And Jimmy will go to sleep
In his own little room again.
There’ll be blue birds over the White Cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow, just you wait and see.
There’s none of us innocent but Hitler and his ardent followers were a threat to the world. The assault against the human family and segments of it in particular, remind the Christian that behind all the specific evils of human society there is an all-encompassing evil that can only be covered by the word “sin”—there’s a universal alienation from God that works itself out in the savagery, brutality and oppression that we see all around us.
P.T Forsyth was right: realities that make our jaws go slack in amazement at their horror deliver us from the idea that we’re essentially good people who don’t need to be delivered from moral and spiritual corruption. The manifest truth is: we need more than some fine-tuning and a bit more knowledge; we need confession, forgiveness and transformation.
But to accomplish all that we need rescue, redemption. We aren’t able to deal with our awful sickness ourselves and the proof of that is everywhere before us. God help us, we rejoice in our chains and degradation even while we lament them and the passing generations prove that to all who are willing to listen. The inexpressibly good news is called “the gospel” and that’s what keeps hope alive that God simply will not leave us to ourselves but that he has come in and as Jesus to rescue us and that he will complete it.
The White Cliffs of Dover was a song of defiance, a song that called people to believe better for the future and I’m one of those Christians who believe that such attacks on humanity illustrate and typify a greater and an overarching threat to the world and the human family—a satanic and demonic threat. I believe too that & ’s song should be allowed to point us to a final restoration of peace and righteousness when Jesus comes and makes the world better. The introductory verse of the song (rarely sung) goes:
I’ll never forget the people I met
Braving those angry skies;
I remember well as the shadows fell,
The light of hope in their eyes.
And tho’ I’m far away, I still can hear them say
“Thumb’s up, for when the dawn comes up:
There’ll be blue birds over the White Cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow, just you wait and see.
We’re all puny little vulnerable people who are not only sinners but sinned against and the offer of God is that we don’t need to live and die without hope in our misery and sinfulness. Pain and loss, disease, suffering and loneliness, bewilderment and dismay—all of which, in one way or another, are attached to humanity’s sinful alienation from God and righteousness—these will not last forever. There’s a day coming when all wrongs will be righted and in Jesus Christ there’ll be peace and joy and righteousness forever without end. Each of us has his/her own personal reasons for looking forward with eagerness to the day when ungodliness ends, when health and joy, righteousness and peace cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. My Ethel’s one of mine.
She died two weeks ago on Easter Sunday. I used to sing to her most mornings when I worked with her (am I not Mr. Wonderful?—yeah right!) I think she enjoyed it. I know she never protested. But every now and then I thought The White Cliffs of Dover brought a contented far-away look into her eyes. click
