Open: Advent Word 17

Today’s word offers an immediate and poignant reminder of the years of my childhood spent nurturing my faith at the First Church of Christ in Globe, Arizona. My father dropped me off before Sunday school and picked me up after church. I sat with Ellen Henderson in the congregation of about 25 to 30 weekly worshippers, some of whose children were contemporaries of my father–Lois Benson, Marie Todd, Winona Haught. We had enough children for a small Sunday school–the Todds, the Speers, and the children of a series of preachers who came and went because they could not make a living from the proceeds of the weekly collection plate. The DeVinneys came later with their four children, Jody, Donna, Sandy, and Randy. By the time I was in the seventh grade, Mrs. DeVinney and I were sharing the duty of clanking out hymns on a battered upright piano to accompany the quavering voices of the matriarchs in the pews. I can still sing by heart all the verses of the hymns we played and sang there, as I can recite the Bible verses we memorized each week in Sunday school. One of those hymns provides a meditation on all the ways we can open ourselves to God, the message of today’s Advent word and the ongoing challenge of our daily lives as Christians.

Open my eyes, that I may see
glimpses of truth thou hast for me.
Place in my hands the wonderful key
that shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes; illumine me,
Spirit divine!

Open my ears, that I may hear
voices of truth thou sendest clear.
And while the wavenotes fall on my ear,
everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears; illumine me,
Spirit divine!

Open my mouth, and let me bear
gladly the warm truth everywhere.
Open my heart, and let me prepare
love with thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my heart; illumine me,
Spirit divine!

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