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This is one of my most favorite hymns, going back to my earliest of childhood memories. As a family, we attended church on Sunday mornings and evenings, which included bible study on Wednesday evenings also. Communion was given each Sunday morning. It was a real blessing to be able to partake of it at age twelve, when I was immersed in baptism. Our denomination was rather strict on this. Though no longer a member of this congregation, It Is Well With My Soul will always have a special meaning. It's beautiful. Sou Feliz Com Jesus ~ Horatio Spafford (1873) Featuring: Matthew Ward with sisters, Annie Herring and Nellie Greisen.

Memories are something, aren’t they? There are rare times when I reminisce about something from my youth and can recall in detail the words said and the actions taken. However, normally my memory is quite faulty and I can’t piece together the entire event. Or worse, I mingle several events together and end up with a skewed look at things. Now, this is troublesome for me because I like the order of things. From an accountants’ perspective, everything has to balance, has to be in order and has to make sense. Memories are fragile. They only survive in a heart that gives them room, and cares enough to pull them out of storage ever so often for a good dusting. Even then they are subject to death and decay and will eventually pass from this life. I can remember my great grandmother and even some of the stories that she told me concerning her parents. My whole life I’ve heard about keeping the memories alive, that our loved ones live on in our hearts, and all that. But I’m a fragile human and don’t know how to access the part of the brain that records everything. Many of my memories have already crumbled into dust, taking with them bits and pieces of my loved ones. I suppose that’s why this scripture jumps out at me so brilliantly. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. Mal. 3:16 God has a book of remembrance. Notice that the scripture says that the ones who feared the Lord spoke often with one another. In other words, they gather together in His name. Those of us who love the Lord – isn’t that what we do? Isn’t that why you’re here now, to read something a brother or sister has written about the Lord? Is it not incredible that the Lord would have it written down, so that you or I will be held in “remembrance” before Him because of our actions? Because we have “thought upon His name”? I find it incredibly humbling, and also beautiful, that the Lord would bring this particular scripture to my attention while I was contemplating the fleeting earthly memories. I know that the Lord doesn’t forget. But to be told that He has a journal, a book of records, an orderly list of remembrances about me, you, us – is both terrifying and comforting. I will be forgotten here, in this place – but in the spiritual I will be eternally listed in a book that will be placed before the Lord. And so will you.