I can't count them all
In the editing of Children's Picture Book Part 2, 1880, Lina had to reuse images, which were already used in other contexts.
One of the images showed a boy sitting on a chair holding a chalkboard in his hand. Lina recalled that Oscar had written a story for it in the Children's Magazine in 1877. The title was "The difficult mathematics homework".
It was first a common calculation, but then the text was about the calculation Jesus taught Peter when he asked how many times he should forgive his brother.
Lina herself had also used that image when she wrote about little Carl in Children's Magazine 1871. He would try to figure out how many times he was the object of God's grace and help for an hour, a day, and 365 days. The boy counted and counted. Finally he exclaimed, "No, I can't count them all!"
When Lina would use the picture on behalf of the Children's Picture Book, she had to come up with a new text for it. She thought of the words "I can't count them all" and all at once it struck her that she would write about the greatest and richest of all, about things that could not be weighed, measured or counted. The paper was quickly filled with a song of gratitude to the Lord for all his goodness to her.
Lina was morning alert and had more than once seen the beauty of the dewdrops in the lady's mantle and that was the image she had in her mind when she wrote the beautiful song "I Can't Count Them All". Her thoughts would probably many times go to especially the first and third verses:
I can not count them all
The tests of God's goodness I found.
Like the morning drops they fall
And glisten like those so nice.
I can not count them all,
The tests of God's goodness I found.
I can not count them all,
But oh, may I thank the more!
The proof of God's love I may call
The miracles of grace he behaves.
I can not count them all,
But oh, may I thank the more!
Tr. U.F.
The picture:
The symbol "Gratitude of praise to the Lord - the harp - is included in the greenery.
The butterfly is symbolic considering its three stages:
The larva - life
The puppet - death
The butterfly - the resurrection
The dew drops are not of wool but of ground glass from the goldsmith. All proofs of God's goodness are like glittering dew drops.
Even the death she could see as a proof of God's grace: that sickness and suffering came to an end.
The third stage of the symbolism, the resurrection, she looked forward to with great expectation!
All three of these stages saw Lina as proofs of God's goodness! Throughout her life, she had seen so many times how God had helped her.