February '26

 

I've always had a special place in my heart for this hymn.  That place grew ten fold when as a young child my youngest brother learned the lyrics and every so often I would hear him humming it to himself.  I am almost 14 years older than the youngest one in my family - he and I grew close in a way that only comes with such a large age gap.  I love my other brothers just as much- but with my "baby brother" who is now a junior in college, it just was a little bit different.  I got to make him pb&js, drive him to play dates, & pick him up from school.  I loved it then & I love that now I am getting to see him flourish in college. Thanks for making this song so special, Isaiah.  Thanks for making my world & the rest of the world a better place.  I love you!

*A special thank you to my friend for graciously allowing me to share this piece of her family's story*

Not long ago I was chatting with a dear friend.  She was telling me how her daughter had let her in on a  "secret that I've never told you before, Mama."  With that Mama's permission, please allow me to share this secret that had never been told:

"I belong to you, Mama."

My heart melted and had a good chuckle all at the same time with my friend who is one of the best mamas I know.

This precious five year old had figured out the "secret." 

The "secret" being she belonged to her mama and daddy.

I can't think of anything more applicable to our hymn than what this little one shared with her mother in the car that day.

My friend's daughter was confident.  She was not wishy washy wondering or fretting if she belonged to her mama.  She knew it in her bones and confidently let her mom in on this secret that she had never told her mama before.

My friend has been a mama loooong before her little girl let her in on "the secret."

I can't help but wonder if this treasured moment between mother and daughter is a reflection of our relationship with the Lord.  Sometimes I forget that I am His.  Sometimes He makes it so obvious and I'm like "wow, Lord, I belong to you."  Does His heart swell with love, gratitude, and a little chuckle at the thought?  I wonder if when we realize we belong to Jesus (for me it's an ongoing process) and tell Him in excitement what the reaction of His heart must be.  Does He look down at His nail scarred hands and say, "Tell me more about that, little one?"

This hymn was penned by a man named Robert Robinson in 1758.  At 17 years old, he got mixed up with alcohol and drinking.  He visited a fortune teller with some buddies and something about it bothered him.  That evening he convinced some friends to go to a meeting being held by a man named George Whitefield, a famous evangelist of the day.  Robinson felt that Whitefild's words were directed straight at him.  He would spend the next three years wrestling through what he believed to be true about God.  He accepted the gift of salvation and entered the ministry.  At the age of 23 he wrote a hymn to go with his sermon on Pentecost Sunday.  That hymn became known as Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. (Morgan, 2011)

I have really struggled since the new year to keep my heart focused on Jesus.  There has just been a lot of life circumstances that seem to keep getting in the way.  The words have echoed through the chambers of my mind:

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be

Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee

prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love

here's my heart; o take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above

Have you ever wondered what a fetter is?  

Google tells us the definition this way: 

a chain used to restrain a prisoner, typically placed around the ankles

Let that grace now, [like a chain] bind my wandering heart to Thee

It doesn't quite have the same ring to it, but the idea is the same.

Prone to wander...prone to leave the God I love

That line chokes me up every single time.

I think because it's true.  I'm inclined to go my own way.  I need Jesus to help me stay close to Jesus.  For without Jesus, my heart would go its own way...

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these things come from within and they defile a person.

-Mark 7:21-23

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

-Proverbs 4:23

...clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

-Romans 13:14

- Jeremiah 17:5-10

When I was trying to come up with what to talk about this month, my mom mentioned tetherball.  It was a game we played a lot growing up.  I don't really remember the rules, but you take turns hitting the ball and getting it to swing around the pole.   The ball is attached to the pole with a rope, so no matter how hard it gets hit- it will always go back to the pole.

I want to be like that- if I am the ball and Jesus is the pole, I want to always go back to Him no matter how hard life knocks me down.

What about you?

Where is your heart today?  Are you tied to Jesus or something of the world?

If, like me, you find yourself more caught up in things of the world...

ask Him to draw you back.  

He will.

Then, like my friend's little girl, you can let Him in on the secret that's really no secret at all...

You belong to Him.

Morgan, R. J. (2011). Then sings my soul: 250 of the World’s greatest hymn stories. Thomas Nelson.