Tuesday, December 14, 2010

"Home" for Christmas & Beyond

Will L. Thompson penned the words of this old invitational hymn of the faith back in 1880. During this Christmas season with songs like "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" in the air, saturating in these words seem to have additional meaning for my soul:

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.

Refrain
Come home, come home,

You who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
Pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,
Mercies for you and for me?

Refrain

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
Coming for you and for me.

Refrain

O for the wonderful love He has promised,
Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me.

Refrain

(Read the Words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30.)

ALL JOY TO YOUR WORLD!

Grateful

4 comments:

KLW said...

Ah yes, the home we dream of, the home we fantasize about and yearn
for especially in this season, the home for which we are homesick is something more than the
imagined home of our childhood. It is rather a home that connects us to things eternal and divine.
You see, our homesickness is but a disguised yearning for the living God who alone can bring
healing and hope and harmony and purpose to our living. What beckons from the depths of our
being, especially at Christmas, is not a return to the literal places of our origin or to the families of
our childhood, which in truth were never as idyllic as we suppose, but rather a return to the God who
made and redeemed us. Dr. Daniel W. Massie

i am Grateful... Kerry i am. said...

Come Home to Jesus. Amen.

Martin LaBar said...

Yes. He's been waiting.

i am Grateful... Kerry i am. said...

For sure.