I was born into this world on the seventh day of June

No sunshine broke the sky as I arrived

My father was a rector with a hard and heavy hand

My mother was thirteen and not his wife

She gave me to the sisters on the farthest edge of town

No one would be the wise or see my face

I became a man raised up by cemetery wolves

We earned our keep by digging beggar's graves

I guess that's just the way they showed me

The loving hand of God

Loving hand of God

When fifteen years had passed they put me out upon the stones

To make my way with gypsies and with thieves

A kindly hearted cropper took me on to till his land

I'd work until my fingers they did bleed

His daughter was a deaf and mute with kind and loving eyes

The color of the bluest summer sky

A love grew strong between us and I asked to take her hand

But the father said he'd sooner see her die

I guess that's just the way he showed me

The loving hand of God

Loving hand of God

And in the spring we stole away to find a life anew

With pennies and our bags to make our way

We found work with the magistrate tending to his land

And happiness was born again each day

And in the fall I married her and summer brought a child

In which there was no sign of me at all

And when I said that son of mine did have her father's eyes

She wept and said that he had come to call

I guess that's just the way he showed me

The loving hand of God

Loving hand of God