I just came back from the funeral home. A friend my own age had died of congestive heart failure shortly after moving back to Michigan from California. He had written an email last year about the excitement of evacuating with his daughter's family from an area around San Diego during the horrible fires they had had there. It really brought that type of tragedy to life for us.
Sometime in February this year he told his wife he wanted to move back to Michigan.
They had just gotten settled into an apartment when the heart gave out. He was just a couple of years older than me. That and my upcoming exam for Barrets Esophagus plus my age make me realize how much as Christians we need to cling to that Hope the only Jesus can give.
I thought of the old hymn, not sung much any more because it seems archaic. But the words give hope in a case like today.
Its by Fanny Crosby the blind hymn writer of many of our old hymns. Link below goes to a site that plays the melody.
http://www.opc.org/hymn.html?hymn_id=651
Some day the silver cord will break,
And I no more as now shall sing;
But oh, the joy when I shall wake
Within the palace of the King!
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story—saved by grace;
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story—saved by grace.
Some day my earthly house will fall,
I cannot tell how soon 'twill be;
But this I know—my All in All
Has now a place in heav'n for me.
Some day, when fades the golden sun
Beneath the rosy tinted west,
My blessed Lord will say, "Well done!"
And I shall enter into rest.
Some day: till then I'll watch and wait,
My lamp all trimmed and burning bright,
That when my Saviour ope's the gates,
My soul to him may take its flight.
On my way home from the funeral home, I started singing what I could remember of the hymn, plus another by her... Face to Face
Unique too that the writer was blind, so when she got to heaven she really did see for the first time, and we shall see too as we never have before, I think perhaps the thought of those two old hymns will be a comfort to those who remember them.
Click on the link below to go to a site that will not only play the hymn, Face to Face, but also give you a little history of the writer.
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/f/a/faceface.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment