Pathways

Psalm 139:1-3 – O Lord, thou has searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandeth my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. (KJV)

There is perhaps no more beautiful or personal passage than that of Psalm 139, and I am ever in awe as to the ways in which He directs our pathways when we are open to having Him do so.

In 1997, while reading my husband's Rotary magazine, I happened upon an article about a Presbyterian gentleman in the United States who, while nursing his wife through a terminal illness in a nursing home, saw a huge void in spiritual music available to the elderly, the sick and shut-ins, especially where nursing homes, hospitals and institutions were concerned.

After her passing, he felt called to do two things. One, he became a hospice volunteer. A baritone, he and an organist friend — years before — had made a record of sacred songs for spiritual enjoyment and so Two was to turn his recording of sacred songs into a tape and dispense it free of charge to as many nursing homes, care facilities, hospitals as possible throughout all 50 states, and to any others desiring to hear some good old hymns.

Perhaps my Presbyterian upbringing, the fact that I too was a hospice volunteer, and my knowing the lack of spiritual music available to the elderly and ill, was what prompted me to contact him and ask if I could be of help in Canada. Thus I became his Canadian missionette.

About the same time, though a link on a relative's home page, I happened upon the PCCWeb Daily website, and contacted the editor, Robin Ross, as to the possibility of getting the word out that I would be only too happy to send a tape free of charge to care homes, elderly, ill and shut-ins. He suggested I write about it. Thus evolved my first devotional, Receiving Messages, on November 26, 1997.

For my part, seventy-odd tapes and a couple of hundred devotionals are a testament to the purposefulness of following the pathways He puts before us.

A letter in last week's mail solidifies this. The gentleman (who had been blessed to be remarried) and his wife wrote to say their mission was complete. They have given away 28,000 tapes of sacred songs to hospitals and nursing homes throughout all 50 States, in Canada, and in some other countries.

Prayer: Father in heaven, may we be ever open to taking the pathways you put before us. To your name be the praise and the glory. Amen.

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