‘Consider the Lilies’

is one of the most loved sacred songs of all time.

The composer was a pleasure to meet and gave wonderful comments.

In the 1980s Hoffman was playing the piano at church when he played a new melody without thinking about it. As he played the melody a few times, lyrics flowed into his mind and he immediately wrote down two verses. As he tried to get up from the piano bench, he felt impressed that there was more to be written. “I was about to rise from the piano bench and go home, when I felt a kind of downward tug, and sat down at the bench again. The message came clearly into my mind, ‘I’m not finished yet.’”

As he started to write the third verse, which deals with pain and suffering, Hoffman confessed, “I panicked. I was afraid to tackle so large a subject. I thought, ‘My pen is too small to deal with a problem so great.’ The thought came into my mind, ‘You’re not writing this, anyway.’ I then remembered someone very dear to me who once said she had a hard time understanding why God would allow little children to be abused, and I had a great desire to help her understand this subject better and be comforted. This urged me on. I wept profusely. I could not contain my feelings. The love I felt was so powerful that I was overcome.”