[Dailydevo] Daily Devotion Thursday January 25, 2007

[bludwig at zlc-aa.org]

Daily Devotion Thursday  January 25, 2007

 

After a two week hiatus, the devotions this week are prepared by Pastor
Ludwig. He looks at favorite hymn phrases.

 

For All The Saints  Stanzas 1,2,4

"For all the saints who from their labors rest....All who by faith before
the world confessed,

Your name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia!  Alleluia!"

 

"You were their rock, their fortress, and their might; You, Lord, their
Captain in the well-fought fight;

You, in the darkness drear, their one true light. Alleluia! Alleluia!"

 

 "Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine, We feebly struggle, they in glory
shine;

Yet all are one within your great design. Alleluia!  Alleluia!"

 

As a sixth grader, I drove my mother crazy with this hymn. I loved it. I did
not yet know why, but I loved it. I loved the words which flowed into run-on
sentences that violated every rule of grammar. I loved the melody which
evoked feelings of joy and hope while at the same time making me feel
melancholy. I hummed the song constantly, sang phrases incessantly and my
crowning achievement was that I used it as my daily practice piece of music
on my B-flat cornet. I blared it. I blasted it! I bleated it (with braces on
my teeth). I mangled it, often missing the sharp sign; I didn't care, I just
loved it.

 

Recently I fell in love with this hymn again, only this time with a maturity
that comes from age.  I was visiting Glen whose wife had died some weeks
before. They had been married for over sixty years. "It is hard," I began.
Not hearing me, he said, "I talk to her all time. I know she is not here,
but Pastor, she is here to me.  Am I strange?"  "No, Glen, you are not
strange, you are Christian! We live in a reality that is as big as the empty
tomb of Easter," I said with tears in my eyes.

 

As I left Glen's apartment I realized that we had been living that amazing
hymn. Not alone, and never cut off from God's love and grace, we are the
saints of God, woven into an eternal quilt of life and hope and communion
that transcends time. Alleluia!

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