We are certainly living through difficult times today with wars, rampaging floods, and devastating fires. A look back in history can provide guidance for us today.

Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) was a German Lutheran pastor. In 1636, amid the darkness of a terrible plague and the horror of the Thirty Years’ War, Rinkart buried over five thousand of his parishioners in one year! That is an average of 15 burials a day! 

His parish was ravaged by the plague, by war and by economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of death and despair right outside his window, Martin Rinkart sat down and wrote and sang this table grace for his children:

“Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things had done,
In whom His world rejoices.
Who, from our mother’s arms,
Hath led us on our way
With countless gifts of love
And still is ours today.”

Do these words sound familiar?  You have sung them many times at church. They were written by a man enduring one of the worst plagues in history, a man who was burying 15 of his parishioners a day! Yet he sat down and wrote hopeful words and beautiful lyrics to his children that we are still singing 388 years later!

What words of thanksgiving are YOU saying to God and teaching YOUR children and grandchildren today?  YOU know the words and the melody of Rinkart’s hymn. Sing them today in the midst of all of the natural disasters and problems around us.

THE BEST WAY TO LOVE GOD IS TO FIND GOD!

Someone you know would profit by reading and hearing today’s Message.