“How Beautiful Heaven Must Be” is a gospel hymn whose words are credited to Cordie Bridgewater, known in hymnbooks as Mrs. A.S. Bridgewater. She is generally said to have written the text around 1920, while living in rural Alabama, with the tune supplied by the gospel composer A.P. Bland.
The hymn carries a quiet sorrow behind its bright imagery. Bridgewater had lost a young daughter some years earlier, and the most commonly repeated account holds that the poem grew out of that grief — a mother’s longing for the heaven where she would see her child again. Its verses dwell on the beauty and peace of that promised home.
The hymn spread widely through Southern gospel singing and passed naturally into bluegrass, where its gentle melody suited close quartet harmony.
