| Revelation 4:8 – “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” |
When my family attended our small country church, we occupied an entire pew. As one of the younger children, I would often sit at one end of the row with dad and my baby brother was at the other end with mom. My three older siblings would be somewhere in the middle. It was the early 1960’s, and we were always scrubbed clean and wearing our ‘Sunday Best.’
I remember standing on the pew next to my dad and learning to read as his fingers pointed out the words from our well-worn red hymnal. One particular favorite was ‘Holy, Holy, Holy.’ I was too young to know what cherubims or seraphims were, but as I listened to the singing, I was able to catch a glimpse of God’s majesty and power. There were other songs, of course, that taught me about the Love of God and that there was Power in the Blood, but this one stands out to me.
It taught me that God WAS, as we learned about in the Old Testament with stories of Moses, Noah, and David. I learned that God IS – He is part of the world around me now and I can talk to Him as both my creator and my friend. And then there was the phrase about Him being God of WHAT IS TO COME. I don’t need to worry about the future – God was already there, working out what is best for me if I will just trust Him. Past, present, and future: God is Lord of it all.
Dear Heavenly Father – thank you for loving us then, and for loving us now. Thank you for the old hymns which taught us Biblical lessons before we were old enough to understand, or even read on our own.
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be. Amen
- Betty Gossell
