BLEST BE THE TIE THAT BINDS

Good day dear friends.

Yesterday's ConCafe and Sunday's Hymn of Sending Forth both got me to thinking of my first year at college. I went to Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas, in deep, make that DEEP East Texas. Or as the song said, "The Piney Woods of East Texas." East Texas in those days was very much a part of the Deep South, and may still be in the hearts and minds of many. We were only a little more than an hour away from Louisiana, and the term redneck and all the negativity that carries was born in East Texas. Not so in the church that gathered on Sunday nights for worship. My practice was to go home every weekend that I wasn't working in the school cafeteria. That worked out to almost every other weekend. And on those Sundays that I had to work, I had to work breakfast and lunch. Sunday nights we were on our own and that usually meant a walk to the Dairy Queen, which was about the only eating establishment worth walking to. But having been raised in the church, a Sunday without going to worship would not do for me. So, I checked that first Sunday I was there and found out that First United Methodist Church, then pastored by The Rev. Dr. Robert Gilpin, had a Sunday night worship service. So, I gathered those who would go with me and I think it was a group of about eight that walked down the four or five blocks to the church and we were all welcomed like family. The singing was just like at home with the exception being that the hymns were in English. All my life until then I had worshiped in Spanish and I didn't know the titles of the English hymns, but the melodies brought tears to my eyes knowing that at the same hour my home church was having its Sunday evening worship service.

What stayed with me was that at the end of every service, we would make a circle in that huge church, the twenty or so of us gathered there, we would join hands and Dr. Gilpin would lead us in the singing of "Blest Be the Tie That Binds." That first time in the circle I just hummed along to the melody because I didn't know the song. What a hymn!

"Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love;

the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above."

On those Sundays that I walked over there alone, I was still met as family and I sang the words

alongside those old ladies and old men whom I knew in my heart meant the words. We were different, but tied together in the love of Christ. Our time there was short but it was a time of fellowship, and in its own way, it was indeed very much "like to that above." I hope in that day we're all there in Heaven, the folks of that circle and the even greater circle from around the world, will all join hands and sing together this and all the hymns, thanking God for each other, for His love, and for the fellowship that keeps Christ's ministry ever before us.

PRAYER: Thank You, Loving God for the inspiration that You've given and continue to give to those who write the songs and melodies of great faith stories we call hymns and worship songs. May the singing of these make us truly Yours and truly each other's. We pray in Jesus' precious name, amen.

I can't close without sharing all the verses:

Before our Father’s throne

We pour our ardent prayers;

Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one

Our comforts and our cares.
We share each other’s woes,

Our mutual burdens bear;

And often for each other flows

The sympathizing tear.
When we asunder part,

It gives us inward pain;

But we shall still be joined in heart,

And hope to meet again.
This glorious hope revives

Our courage by the way;

While each in expectation lives,

And longs to see the day.
From sorrow, toil and pain,

And sin, we shall be free,

And perfect love and friendship reign

Through all eternity.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!

e.v.