Dear HLPC family,
This past Sunday we sang the hymn “How Firm a Foundation.” Like many of you, I’ve sung that hymn many times over many years. However, this past week the 5th verse caught my attention in a fresh way where it reads:
E’en down to old age all my people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.
Be honest, who among you, like me, asked, “What are ‘hoary hairs?’” A quick internet search (that I did today, not Sunday) tells me it means “grayish white.” Hoary hairs are gray hairs. As much as I want to ignore them, I have them in growing numbers adorning my own temples.
This verse of the hymn is reminding us that God is faithful to His people and how, even as they age, they will be sustained by His “sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love.” That’s a powerfully comforting thought!
Growing old is not for the faint of heart. Life gets tough as we age. We face our own growing list of aches, pains, and illnesses. We face the mortality of close friends and family. We even come to think more soberly about our own limited time here on earth.
Yet, the Lord has much to prove to us. “Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne” says the hymn. God’s love doesn’t diminish or cease. In fact, those who’ve walked and aged in Christ have much of His faithfulness to teach.
God has blessed HLPC with a wide range of ages and stages of life. That’s a great blessing to us as a church family. May He give us fellowship across the generations so that the younger can see the faith of those who are older—those with hoary hairs on their temples–and find in them men and women of whom they can say, “May the Lord grant me that same level of faithfulness to Him as I grow older!”
Your Pastor,
Paul