God Has A Plan

God always has a plan.  

He has a plan for His children.  He has a plan for those who choose not to accept His Son.  He has a plan for this earth.  We may not see it, or know it, but one day we will see how very perfect His plan for us has been.

As I look back at the path my life has taken through the decades, I can see God's hand working in my life so much more clearly than I could see at the time.  Few things bring this to light more than the hymns.

Hymns have always been a great part of my life.  I grew up in a time before choruses were used in churches.  We sang the old hymns, many of which were written out of great pain and sorrow.  I grew up in a small church and was quickly plucked out of the congregation, placed in the choir and told to "sing what the lady next to you sings."  I learned to sing harmony from the old hymns. The first song I played on the piano was a hymn.

The most significant hymn in my life was sung the day of our wedding.  We didn't really want a person to stand up and sing, because we wanted our wedding to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, not on any one -or two- persons.  So before we came into the sanctuary, we had the congregation sing the hymn, "The Solid Rock." This hymn was a foreshadowing of what would comprise a great part of our ministry together.

Someone asked me recently where Glen and I attend church.  I answered that we "take church to people."  We do several services each week in nursing homes and assisted living centers, "taking church" to those who are unable to get out and go to church.  In those services we sing several hymns.  We once estimated that we sing about 1472 hymns each year.  That is 26,496 hymns since we began almost 19 years ago, give or take a verse or two.

Many of these hymns I have sung for so long, I know them by heart.  Interestingly, for many of these I have sung the harmony to the hymn so long that I no longer remember the melody.  I would have to look in the hymnal to remind myself how the tune actually goes.

Who would have thought, while my bridesmaids, my father and I waited in the foyer of the church, singing that old hymn with the guests, it would be a symbol of something Glen and I would share over and over and over again.  God always has a plan.  

Always.

"As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: 
He is a buckler to all them that trust in Him."

2 Samuel 22:31

"I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live:  
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being." 

Psalm 104:33

The Solid Rock

written by Edward Mote

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale
my anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, His covenant, His blood
support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay

On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand.