The Lord of Sea and Sky
Susan was right--I'm in an internet cafe in Redditch, with Peter, and after a few glitches with the laptop, I am going to schedule four posts: two for today and then Sunday and Monday. Thank you SO much, Meg and Susan, for keeping up with posting to WHS! It means more than you can know!
Thank you, dear readers, for your faithful prayers for Mum. She is so much better than when we arrived. She has far to go, and we don't know what tomorrow will bring, but this is the day the Lord has made--and we are being glad and rejoicing in it!
Here is the first of my journal/updates:
March 5-6/09
It was the day of my flight to England with Brenda and soon we would be on our way to Mum, but the pre-flight hours were filled with steady plodding through the many things to be done before leaving. In the morning I met with a co-worker, and something in the conversation caused me to reach for the small bible that I carry in my briefcase.
I opened the domed fastener of the tiny, dark blue, leather bound book and a piece of paper fluttered to the ground. I caught my breath as I recognized Mum’s familiar neat, forward-slanting handwriting of six years ago. She had written out the words to a hymn: I the Lord of Sea and Sky. I remembered how this hymn had deeply touched her after Dad died. She loved it so much that she asked if I knew it. I didn’t, but asked if she would write out the words—and it was her response to my request that fell to the floor in my office the day I was to fly to see her.
I the Lord of sea and sky I have heard my people cry
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save
I, who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?
Chorus:
Here I am, Lord
It is I, Lord
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me,
I will hold your people in my heart
I the Lord of snow and rain
I have borne my people’s pain
I have wept for love of them
They turn away
I will break their hearts of stone
Give them hearts for love alone
I will speak my word to them
Whom shall I send?
(Chorus)
I the Lord of wind and flame
I will tend the poor and lame
I will set a feast for them
My hand will save
Finest bread I will provide
Till their hearts are satisfied
I will give my life for them
Whom shall I send?
Brenda and I got on a plane leaving Toronto on Thursday evening. On Friday morning we landed in Amsterdam. As we left Schippol airport on a City Hopper, bound for Birmingham, England.
We looked down on the neat, straight streets of old Amsterdam, with their ornately decorated houses and steep roofs. We left the shoreline of Holland behind, and then crossed the North Sea, gazing down on what looked like toy cargo ships in the vast expanse of water. Very soon the sea gave way to the unmistakeable patchwork quilt of green, brown and soft gold English fields.
Brenda was seated by the window and suddenly said, “Mom, look, can you see that? It’s beautiful.” I strained to see and caught a glimpse of a rainbow, but what she could see in the fluffy clouds below was the full circle of a rainbow with the shadow of the plane in the centre.
Deuteronomy 32:11-12 (New International Version)
11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its pinions.
12 The LORD alone led him;..
Thank you, dear readers, for your faithful prayers for Mum. She is so much better than when we arrived. She has far to go, and we don't know what tomorrow will bring, but this is the day the Lord has made--and we are being glad and rejoicing in it!
Here is the first of my journal/updates:
March 5-6/09
It was the day of my flight to England with Brenda and soon we would be on our way to Mum, but the pre-flight hours were filled with steady plodding through the many things to be done before leaving. In the morning I met with a co-worker, and something in the conversation caused me to reach for the small bible that I carry in my briefcase.
I opened the domed fastener of the tiny, dark blue, leather bound book and a piece of paper fluttered to the ground. I caught my breath as I recognized Mum’s familiar neat, forward-slanting handwriting of six years ago. She had written out the words to a hymn: I the Lord of Sea and Sky. I remembered how this hymn had deeply touched her after Dad died. She loved it so much that she asked if I knew it. I didn’t, but asked if she would write out the words—and it was her response to my request that fell to the floor in my office the day I was to fly to see her.
I the Lord of sea and sky I have heard my people cry
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save
I, who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?
Chorus:
Here I am, Lord
It is I, Lord
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me,
I will hold your people in my heart
I the Lord of snow and rain
I have borne my people’s pain
I have wept for love of them
They turn away
I will break their hearts of stone
Give them hearts for love alone
I will speak my word to them
Whom shall I send?
(Chorus)
I the Lord of wind and flame
I will tend the poor and lame
I will set a feast for them
My hand will save
Finest bread I will provide
Till their hearts are satisfied
I will give my life for them
Whom shall I send?
Brenda and I got on a plane leaving Toronto on Thursday evening. On Friday morning we landed in Amsterdam. As we left Schippol airport on a City Hopper, bound for Birmingham, England.
We looked down on the neat, straight streets of old Amsterdam, with their ornately decorated houses and steep roofs. We left the shoreline of Holland behind, and then crossed the North Sea, gazing down on what looked like toy cargo ships in the vast expanse of water. Very soon the sea gave way to the unmistakeable patchwork quilt of green, brown and soft gold English fields.
Brenda was seated by the window and suddenly said, “Mom, look, can you see that? It’s beautiful.” I strained to see and caught a glimpse of a rainbow, but what she could see in the fluffy clouds below was the full circle of a rainbow with the shadow of the plane in the centre.
Deuteronomy 32:11-12 (New International Version)
11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its pinions.
12 The LORD alone led him;..
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