Music has the powerful ability to create the most wonderful images in our minds. The melody and the lyrics combine to paint grand pictures on the pallets of our imagination. When we hear music, it transports us to a time and place, often far from our current situation. Music lifts our spirts, it makes us want to dance and it gives us words that accompany the most difficult and most joyful moments of our lives.
We have just come through Holy Week and the great celebration of Easter. This past week was filled with beautiful stories of the work of Jesus in the world. Throughout Holy Week, the love of Jesus was on full display as he entered Jerusalem, was arrested and hung on that “Old Rugged Cross.” This past week has reminded me, once again, of just how much God loves and cares for us.
As Holy Week came to a close, I could not help but remember the powerful words from George Bennard’s beautiful hymn, The Old Rugged Cross. George Bennard, a Methodist preacher and evangelist, wrote:
On a hill far away, stood an old rugged Cross
The emblem of suffering and shame
And I love that old Cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain
So I’ll cherish the old rugged Cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged Cross
And exchange it some day for a crown
This hymn has helped Christian people sing their gratitude for the salvation that was offered to the world on that Old Rugged Cross. It also serves as a reminder that the cross is not the final act of our Lord, but the cross leads to joy, peace and a hope for a future for more wonderful than that old cross on a hill.
What songs remind you of the great love of our God? What hymns help to give you a sense of peace and hope? Perhaps this week you could keep those words before you and be reminded that, although Easter was celebrated yesterday, our hope, our joy and our peace is with us today and will always be with us.
Rev. Keith King, Online Campus Pastor
