“I want to Walk as a Child of the Light”

During a relentless heat wave during the summer of 1966, Kathleen Thomerson [b. 1934] and her family, in an effort to escape the rolling brownouts of St. Louis, elected to return to the comfort of her mother’s air-conditioned home in Houston, Texas. Although a musician, not a poet, by training, Thomersons’ recent study of Scripture passages dealing with childlike faith unexpectedly began to evoke the first verse of this hymn, which she composed and wrote instead of packing for the airport. The remaining verses she finished in Houston, giving genesis to the name of the tune [Houston].
Although it is placed within the Hymnal’s Epiphany section, the hymn which has been used for weddings and funerals, also bears a pronounced Advent theme, especially in the second verse, which references Malachi 4:2; “but you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in it’s wings.”
The incipient theme of Christ residing in a Christian’s heart was inspired by Ephesians 3:17, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” The hymn may manifest a theme of childhood, alluding to Christ’s words in Matthew 18:3. “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

1 I want to walk as a child of the light. I want to follow Jesus.
God sent the stars to give light to the world. The star of my life is Jesus.

Refrain: In Him is no darkness at all.
The night and the day are both alike.
The Lamb is the light of the city of God.
Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.

LSB 411