The I’ll Make It My Home song focuses on heaven as a beautiful city, with streets of gold where treasures cannot decay – a place the Christian looks for and desires as an eternal home. Some might object to the word “make” as sounding too close works for salvation. It has the possibility of giving that misunderstanding. However, I think the connotation of “make” here is related to arrive or reach. That is, the poet expects to reach the desired haven “some day” because of trusting in God and not self. The song is more about expressing the hope of or desire for heaven of the one expecting to go there, rather than detailing how to get there. Ephesians 1:13 - in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.
Where no one can go astray;
And since I am trusting His wonderful love,
I’ll make it my home some day.
Where treasures cannot decay;
Where love’s blessed story with rapture is told,
I’ll make it my home some day.
And angels in white array
Are praising my Lord, with my loved and His own;
I’ll make it my home some day.
Till I shall be called away,
I labor and wait, for I know His reward
My soul shall enjoy some day.
I’ll make it my home some day (some day),
When shadows have passed away (away);
A mansion of love is waiting above,
I’ll make it my home some day (some day).
It is uncertain who is the author of the words. Though the name is known – Mrs. L. J. Morris – it is hard to be certain who this Mrs. L. J. Morris is. Hymnary.org lists only this song and one other for Mrs. L. J. Morris – “Let not your heart be troubled” (1933). It is probable that the Depression Era in the United States led many to longingly look aloft, hoping for heaven sooner rather than later. May we be so found, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
The tune of I’ll Make It My Home was composed by Christopher Columbus Stafford. Stafford was born in Alabama May 10, 1893, the son of William Manual Stafford and Susan Leona Roberson. It appears that he lived much of his adult life in Texas. He possibly came to Texas to attend school or work for Stamps-Baxter Music Company (or both). Stafford obtained his music degrees at Texas schools. He was in Blount County, Alabama in 1920 (a teacher of music), but was a school teacher in Denton, Denton County, Texas in 1930. In 1940, Stafford was living in White Oak, Gregg County, Texas, and listed as a “Vocal Music Teacher” in the census. While there he was apparently a member of the White Oak Missionary Baptist Church. In February 1943, the White Oak Baptist Church had a house warming gathering for Mr. & Mrs. C. C. Stafford (Longview Daily News, Sunday, February 7, 1943, p. 10). He also taught elementary music in 1942-44 (and maybe longer) at the White Oak School. In 1950 he was living at Owentown in Smith County, and listed as a “Music Teacher.” He was a composer of music, as well as some hymns. The once-popular The New Song was a 1926 collaboration of Jesse Randolph Baxter Jr. and C. C. Stafford. The Hymnary.Org lists several songs by Stafford, but only a portion of his output.
At the time of his death, his obituary listed Stafford as a resident of Dallas, Texas. C. C. Stafford died in Rayville, Richland Parish, Louisiana, July 7, 1977 at age 84. He is buried at the Grace Hill Cemetery at Longview, Gregg County, Texas, where two sisters and a brother are also buried.[i]
[i] Legal records show C. C. Stafford was married three times: first to Margie Helm in 1923; second to Hazel Marie Branch in 1940 (divorced and married again in 1951): third to Mrs. Myrtle Frances Schroeder in Dallas in 1956.
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