Two weeks gone by

At 3 p.m. yesterday Shirley Hunt had been missing two weeks. It has been a long two weeks for her family and has brought the questions, "Will we find her and, if not, in what manner will we go on?" Have we been sentenced to drive every road looking, to watch every buzzard flying, to go to sleep every night wondering? If that is the sentence, may we in it glorify God Who does all things well. In times like these, perhaps we are tempted to adopt the philosophy that "things don't happen for a reason, they just happen." But if on good days we believe there is "a time to every purpose under the heaven" and "that all things work together for good to them that love God," must we not also admit that this is true on bad days as well?

Brethren, farewell, I do you tell,
I’m sorry to leave, I love you so well.
Now I must go, where I don’t know,
Wherever Christ leads me the trumpet to blow.

Here I have worked, labored awhile,
But labor is sweet if Jesus doth smile.
When I am done, I will go home
Where Jesus is smiling and bids me to come.

This hymn has been a blessing over the past several days. I've listened to it on "The Owen Family: A Heritage of Singing," which in God's providence was in the CD player. Are not all of God's children like David, who, "after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep?" When we are done, we will go home.

Note: The tune "Christian's Farewell" by Raymond Hamrick is found in The Sacred Harp (1991 Denson Revision) p. 347; the words are from Benjamin Lloyd's Primitive Hymns (an arrangement of verses 1 and 3, #621).