Karolina Wilhelmina Sandell-Berg was born in Sweden in 1832,
the daughter of a Lutheran pastor. Very
much a “Daddy’s girl”, she loved and adored her father.
At an early age Lina (pronounced with a long ‘i’) was stricken with a paralysis that confined her to bed most of the time. Doctors pronounced her case to be hopeless, but her parents prayed devotedly for her recovery. One Sunday morning, while her parents were in church, Lina began reading the Bible and praying in earnest. When her parents returned, they found their 12-year-old daughter dressed and walking around the house – completely recovered.
After her experience of healing, Lina poured out her love for God into verse, publishing her first book of poetry expressing her love for God by the age of 16.
At the age of 26, Lina experienced a tragedy which affected the course of her life. With her father in a boat crossing a lake, the boat suddenly lurched and her beloved father was thrown overboard and drowned right in front of her eyes. Nine years later, then married to a merchant and future member of the Swedish Parliament (Oscar Berg), she lost her only child at childbirth.
Lina poured her grief into her poetry, her broken heart spurring her to write more. With many of her poems, over 650 of them, being set to music, she is often referred to as the Fanny Crosby of Sweden. Her hymns were a tremendous influence of the great revival in Scandinavia in the 1850s.
One of her hymns that has been translated to English is Day by Day:
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure, Gives unto each day what He deems best –
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure, Mingling toil with peace and rest.
All my cares He fain would bear and cheer me, He whose name is Counsellor and Pow’r.
The protection of His child and treasure Is a charge that on Himself He laid;
“As your days, your strength shall be in measure,” This the pledge to me He made.
That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation, Offered me within Your holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting, E’er to take, as from a father’s hand,
One by one, the days the moments fleeting, ‘Till I reach the promised land.
Christian History e-mail, 27 July 2025
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Sandell
https://www.godtube.com/popular-hymns/day-by-day-and-with-each-passing-moment/
