I love Tennessee. It is where my mama settled when she came from Ethiopia in the 80’s. It is where my paternal grandparents made a home when they came from Georgia and Alabama to attend a university, where they eventually met each other and married, in Nashville.

While the “greenest state in the land of the free” has always been home base, we have moved away from her three times. We came back for the second time in 2018, just in time for the holidays. What was supposed to be a short visit home over the holidays turned into a more permanent move back to the state when we were not able to get visas to return to our home in Ireland under new immigration laws.

That next January, we settled into a cozy cubbyhole of the Smokies in Del Rio, Tennessee - right next to the real Rocky Top! One early morning, as I drove from Sevierville back to my East Tennessee home, the words to this song started drifting along to the fog lifting off the dewy, green grass along the roadside.

“There is a green…” I sang and drove. It seems like drive-time is a when I do an awful lot of singing and a whole lot of praying. The words kept on coming and so did the tune. It became my travel song that I would hum on the road.

We moved to Georgia a while later. It was not until the third move home that I decided to really share this song. Moving back to Tennessee the third time was different. I was bringing my little family back to my big family. We were coming home to grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all in new stages of life. We came home with purpose.

My grandparents were a piece of my purpose in coming home. Life is busy but living hours away only made spending time with them even harder. This move home made it possible to be close in case of urgent needs and for more frequent visits. I wanted to share this song with them!

My granddaddy traveled all over the world for work when I was growing up. Hearing about the places he went when we were little was so exciting to me. There came a point, though, where he was done with travel. It was time to stay home. He had worked hard and I remember him telling me on a drive at his East Tennessee lake-house that he would be happy to live there, sitting on the porch each morning and looking out. He was ready to stay put and be home.

And I had been far off for long enough to miss a few moments that were so special. One birthday dinner, I remember seeing the picture of my family out to dinner where Granddaddy had shared this scripture:

“Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.”
- Proverbs 17:6

He shared that all of us grandchildren were jewels on his crown. I tearfully smiled as I looked on at my own four children as the crown jewels of their fore-bearers. My grandmother’s voice saying, “Love you, little sweethearts!” about my children is one of my favorite parts of my family’s story.

So, I sat down with my husband and my father-in-law with a couple of guitars. I sang the song to them and they played along. It is was so fun to listen to them translate the little tune I had sung in my head into a real song. They thoughtfully picked out the musical parts I had only ever hummed to myself on I-40.

This song has been a real family affair! We took it into the studio because I wanted to be able to share it with my grandparents in a real way. My husband and father-in-law did what they do. Our friend Shawn helped build it out into a the full, warm track being released TODAY! While my CD-burner is lost to the ages, I hope Grandmama and Granddaddy Bear enjoy listening to it online and sharing it with their friends.

The last verse is where I will finish this story. For many Christians, the life of missionary work - traveling far off to the unreached places of the world - is idealized and admired highly. It is difficult in ways that living your life in your own country and culture is not. It is a necessary, worthy calling but it is not the only one.

When we believers are commanded in scripture to make disciples of all nations, our own nations are included. Sharing the Light of the World does not have to mean learning a new language and moving across the world, unless that is what the Lord commissions you to do. More often, we believers in Christ are called to share the Truth right where we are - no matter where we are. Bear the Light, everywhere, because sometimes the ends of the earth are called home.

I hope you enjoy the story song this tale has made: Place Like Tennessee.

In the Love of Christ,

Hannah

Place Like Tennessee

Thanksgiving

Harvest - The Story

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