Gå varsamt min broder, giv akt på din gång
Den vägen är smal och den porten är trång
Och porten är vissheten som vi nu bär:
Det blir ingen himmel förrän alla är där.

Gå framåt min syster, följ ljuset i dig.
Det finns ingen ära i att nedvärdera sig.
Ditt ljus är en strimma av evighet här.
Det blir ingen himmel förrän alla är där.

Som barn visst vi knuffas, vi bråkar och slåss
”Dom där ska väl inte ha mera än oss”
Men nu vi försonas, i mötet vi lär:
Det blir ingen himmel förrän alla är där.

Vi kommer från världens alla vägar och stråk.
Vi gläds när vi ses och på all världens språk
vi sjunger och vandrar mot ljuset vi är;
Det blir ingen himmel förrän alla är där.
Det blir ingen himmel förrän alla är här!

Music: Traditional melody from Rättvik, Sweden

Lyrics and Arrangement: Anders Nyberg

This old melody from Rättvik was made popular by Jan Johansson's rendition of it in his groundbreaking record "Jazz på svenska" (Jazz in Swedish). The melody has also been sung to this old hymn,

"Gå varsamt min kristne giv akt på din gång,

den vägen är smal och den porten är trång

som leder till livet och de äro få

som kunna den följa och vilja den gå."

The hymn creates a picture of "them and us" and it is always "them" who don't make it to heaven...

And by excluding "the other" we are indeed excluding ourselves.

I remember once a long time ago sitting in a church with my good friend Mikael Zifa Eriksson, and this hymn was sung by the choir. I turned over to him and whispered: "It can't be like this". And he whispered back. "Maybe the few who have found the narrow path described in the lyrics are the one's who have realized that. The narrow gate it the realization that we all make it ..." And the song got a new and refreshing meaning.

We need to challenge are old beliefs and thought-patterns. We need to write new hymns and rewrite old one's.

So this lovely melody got new lyrics with a refrain "There will be no heaven until all are there". That's where we are heading: to see the unity of all and to experience the community of all. The opposite thought of a few having a good time for ever on behalf of the many is a rather hellish description and not so far from how we have organised our world. A change need to happen and it needs to start by changing our perception of the world.

I once sang this song with it's new lyrics in a workshop and spoke a lot about being present, as I often do on my courses. A guy reacted on the last line - should it not rather be: "There will be no heaven until all are here"? So we added that line to the end. Just imagine that: the day we all are totally present, every single one of us, and all of us have let go of the illusion of time. Then time as we know it will cease to be and we all find ourselves in what could be described as ... heaven.

Imagine that... It's easy if you try.