“His Name Is Wonderful” - Audrey Mieir

1916–96

Children in bathrobes were playing shepherds and angels in a church nativity play. The prophecy from Isaiah 9:6 was read: “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (KJV). Afterward, the pastor reiterated, “His name is Wonderful.”

From her place in the congregation, musician Audrey Mieir saw and heard all of this. “I felt as if I heard the rustle of angel wings and a musical chorus came to my mind,” she said later. She quickly wrote the words inside her Bible: “His name is wonderful.” In the next few days, a song took shape. It soon became a favorite of churches everywhere.

In her youth, Audrey Mieir had moved from Pennsylvania to California, where she got involved in the church led by Aimee Semple McPherson. In 1939, Audrey was ordained in the Foursquare Gospel denomination (which McPherson founded), but music remained her major ministry. There in Southern California, she was at the hub of a growing Pentecostal movement, working with a number of well-known preachers and musicians.

Besides her work as a choir director and songwriter, Audrey played an important role as a promoter. She helped to run a regular “Monday Night Sing,” in which up-and-coming Christian musicians could share their gifts. In the 1960s, she encouraged a young singer named Andraé Crouch. “God is using you to bring out things people want to express,” she told him. Mieir helped Crouch get started on an impressive career. (And he made a memorable recording of Audrey’s song “To Be Used of God.”)

This is a role we can emulate—helping others to be used by God. Sometimes we focus only on the gifts we ourselves can offer the Lord. We want to be the best speakers, writers, singers, helpers, or whatever. That’s all well and good, but sometimes the best gift is encouraging someone else, as Audrey Mieir did with several young musicians.

Look around you. Do you recognize any “diamonds in the rough”? Are there those with musical or artistic gifts, or perhaps raw communication skills or unfocused creativity? What could you do to support them and develop their gifts? Could you be a “wonderful” counselor to someone else?

A child is born to us. . . . And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6