Christ has prepared for us a place

In the 1960s (and since?) there seemed to be a scarcity of contemporary texts about heaven, and perhaps an embarrassment with the subject, compared with many confident 18th-19th c hymns which are vivid, not always convincing, often sentimental – not to mention the richly poetic and yearning verse from earlier ages. Beginning from John 14:2 and using other Scriptures including Revelation, this much revised hymn was written and first sung at Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, in 1968. The author Christopher Idle hopes that his has improved over the years. He says that ‘“Secular” writers are often ready to explore an ideal future. And C S Lewis pointed out, in his essay Weight of Glory, that Jesus rebukes us, not because our desires for heaven are too strong, but because they are too feeble (Matt 6:19 21 etc)’. The hymn first appeared in print 30 years after being written, in Light upon the River from which this is quoted. The writer adds, ‘I try to face the challenge while confining myself to what Scripture reveals.’ In Nov 1998, the year when LUTR was published and while the compiling of Praise! was nearing completion (and actually while its committee was meeting), Barbara Edwards went to be ‘with Christ, which is better by far’, after a long and painful progressive illness. She was the wife and long term fellow worker of Brian, Chairman of the book’s editorial board; this hymn was sung on 25 Nov 1998 at the Service of Thanksgiving at Hook Evangelical Church in Surbiton, Surrey, where he had been pastor for 30 years. No.959 was the concluding hymn, and the present hymn-book is the first to publish this one.
The tune chosen for that service was CHURCH TRIUMPHANT (no.47). For SOLOTHURN chosen here, which for some still carries a ‘heavenly’ association, see no.958.

b Bromley, Kent 1938. Eltham Coll, St Peter’s Coll Oxford (BA, English), Clifton Theol Coll Bristol; ordained in 1965 to a Barrow-in-Furness curacy. He spent 30 years in CofE parish ministry, some in rural Suffolk, mainly in inner London (Peckham, Poplar and Limehouse). Author of over 300 hymn texts, mainly Scripture based, collected in Light upon the River (1998) and Walking by the River (2008), Trees along the River (2018), and now appearing in some 300 books and other publications; see also the dedication of EP1 (p3) to his late wife Marjorie. He served on 5 editorial groups from Psalm Praise (1973) to Praise!; his writing includes ‘Grove’ booklets Hymns in Today’s Language (1982) and Real Hymns, Real Hymn Books (2000), and The Word we preach, the words we sing (Reform, 1998). He edited the quarterly News of Hymnody for 10 years, and briefly the Bulletin of the Hymn Society, on whose committee he served at various times between 1984 and 2006; and addressed British and American Hymn Socs. Until 1996 he often exchanged draft texts with Michael Perry (qv) for mutual criticism and encouragement. From 1995 he was engaged in educational work and writing from home in Peckham, SE London, until retirement in 2003; following his return to Bromley after a gap of 40 years, he has attended Holy Trinity Ch Bromley Common and Hayes Lane Baptist Ch. Owing much to the Proclamation Trust, he also belongs to the Anglican societies Crosslinks and Reform, together with CND and the Christian pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation. A former governor of 4 primary schools, he has also written songs for school assemblies set to familiar tunes, and (in 2004) Grandpa’s Amazing Poems and Awful Pictures. His bungalow is smoke-free, alcohol-free, car-free, gun-free and TV-free. Nos.13, 18, 21, 23A, 24B, 27B, 28, 31, 35, 36, 37, 48, 50, 68, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 85, 89, 92, 95, 102, 108, 109, 114, 118, 119A, 121A, 125, 128, 131, 145B, 157, 176, 177, 193*, 313*, 333, 339, 388, 392, 420, 428, 450, 451, 463, 478, 506, 514, 537, 548, 551, 572, 594, 597, 620, 621, 622, 636, 668, 669, 693, 747, 763, 819, 914, 917, 920, 945, 954, 956, 968, 976, 1003, 1012, 1084, 1098, 1138, 1151, 1158, 1159, 1178, 1179, 1181, 1201, 1203, 1204, 1205, 1209, 1210, 1211, 1212, 1221, 1227, 1236, 1237, 1244, 1247, 5017, 5018, 5019, 5020.