Blessed Assurance

This hymn wasn’t included on the Thursday Thirteen list which I did last month, but I’ve decided to feature it tonight. It’s the best memory of my mom that I can think of right now, as it was her favorite hymn. We sang it at her funeral and I never hear it that I don’t think of her, But then, it’s seldom that a day goes by that I don’t think of her in one way or another. This is my twelfth Mother’s Day without her and on each of the eleven that have gone and already the one that’s almost here, there have been teary eyes off and on over one memory or another.

But I’m thankful for each memory and won’t say too much more here, because I tend to get a bit emotional. My love for the hymns may have come from my mom; she loved so many. But this one was particularly special to her. Most of us know the story of the writer, Fanny Crosby, blinded from six weeks of age, yet writing hymn after hymn totaling more than 8,000! One fact about her that I recently noticed was concerning the epitaph engraved on her tombstone at Bridgeport, Connecticut. The words are from Mark 14:8 and they state simply that “She hath done what she could.” What a precious testimony about this one dear lady whose words have been blessing so many of the people of God through the ages. That each of us would do what we can.

I went to my mother’s grave today to do what I usually try to do each Mother’s Day. I may have missed doing it once to twice, but when I can, I plant one geranium there as a token of what she was to her one daughter and two granddaughters. Through the years, a single geranium was given by her granddaughter(s) each year on this special day, and each year, she cherished that gift. But I know that even though I take it and place it there, I’m not giving it to her, because of the truth of what is engraved on her tombstone: “Absent from the body; Present With the Lord.” Hallelujah.

This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. (Fanny J. Crosby)
Listen at The Cyber Hymnal