RUNNEMEDE REMEMBERED

Growing up in a small town in Southern New Jersey


Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Great is Thy Faithfulness


Sunday night the church my granddaughter Toria attends had the children's Christmas program. Toria had a lead in the play. It was a tearful event for me. The tears were not tears of sadness, just tears of blessed remembrance.
This is a picture of my father (on left) and Mr. Bowers (on right). I think I mentioned Mr. Bowers before. He loved the Lord with all his heart and he talked about his Saviour all the time. When dad would call on him to pray, we knew it we would be late getting out of church. Mr. Bowers couldn't not talk to his Lord for less than 20 minutes. And it was a conversation -- before conversational prayer was popular. He talked to God as if he was sitting right next to him on the pew. Anyway, whenever dad would asked for a hymn selection from anyone in the congregation who had a favorite, Mr. Bowers ALWAYS requested Great is Thy Faithfulness -- all three verses.
Now to a child, who doesn't give a hoot about the beauty of the words of a hymn, and their only thought of what a good church song or hymn is, is based on rhythm/tempo and melody -- forget the words, GITF was boring. So inaudible groans would arise from the "kids" row whenever Mr. Bowers suggested we sing Hymn No. 12 -- Great is Thy Faithfulness.
Now, the words mean something, and the song often brings tears to my eyes because of the meaning of the words.
Well, my grand daughter, Toria's, solo was Great is Thy Faithfulness. She did a wonderful job singing that old song, her voice was precious, and her ability to stay on tune was amazing. Not one bad note did she sing. Well, of course, I cried.
Then at the end of the play I noticed how much she looked like her mother did at that age (11 going on 12) and was in a Christmas play at church. That did it -- again -- the waterworks turned on.
All in all, though, it was a beautiful play and the children did a wonderful job, and even though it was tearful for me, God blessed me immensely.


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