His Faithfulness To All Generations

A number of years ago, I read an article about an old blind woman who had memorized many books and chapters of the Bible using Braille.  

I remember feeling so convicted. I can see.  I can read.  What is my excuse? I had none.

As I read her story, I wondered, “What would it be like to REALLY know the Word of God?”  Not just to be familiar with it or know where things are but to really know it.  

I determined that I was going to learn God’s Word. I asked God to make my heart beat for it.  To help me learn it.  I didn’t want to just be familiar with it, or just to study it, or just to read it, or just to make lists and take notes from it.  I wanted to continue to do those things but I wanted it on my heart.  

And I wanted heart memory.  Like Psalm 119:  Thy word have I treasured in my heart. I wanted this treasure. And like Psalm 1:  His delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law he meditates day and night.  I wanted this delight.  I wanted to know what it would be like to meditate on God’s Word in my heart day and night.  

I wanted the touching, grabbing, clutching, lodging-in, taking-root-in, forcing-growth-from, rooting-sin-out-of kind of memory.

Sometimes memorizing has been so much fun.
Other times it has been so difficult – it is a discipline, it is hard work, it is sweat.

I have reached heartbreak hills and many times I haven’t felt like doing the work.

Sometimes I have been just plain lazy.

Then sometime along the way – and I’m sure it was a time when I was getting lazy - I read the biography of St. Patrick to my youngest child.  I don’t know how much he got out of it, but God pierced my heart once again.

I read how after he became a missionary to Ireland, he only had one hand-printed copy of the Bible.

He had to build a layered hut with a hidden room to protect it from those who wanted to destroy it.  And I wondered, what would that be like?  To only have one copy of the Scripture and to keep it, I had to protect it.

He had only one copy, but it was his treasure.

And I thought, what would it be like to really treasure the Word of God?

I have so many copies of the Bible - what excuse do I have?

I have none.  Now that my children are grown, I have uninterrupted morning time to be in God’s Word.  When they were growing up, I often got up before them to have unhurried, uninterrupted time … but somehow their radar went off and they sensed Mom was up.

At first, I wished they would sleep a little longer but then, God showed me that it was a good thing they saw me in His Word first thing in the mornings.  I began to gather them in my lap if I was on the sofa, or have them pull up a chair next to me if I was at the kitchen table.  I began to show them what I was doing and tell them how important it was to me.

I have scribbles I still treasure as they copied what I was doing. As they grew up in our home, I witnessed each of them having their own morning time with the Lord.  Now, they are all grown – married - some with children of their own. I have witnessed their spouses and my grandchildren having this same morning time.  I have heard them teach God’s Word to their children.

I continue to pray that all of us would have hearts beating for the Lord and His Word during our stay upon this earth.  None of us know how long that will be.  

Last Wednesday night, as I was listening to a child recite Psalm 100, I was reminded once again that God’s faithfulness is to all generations.  I looked at the children in the room, thought about how I will be long gone when they reach my age, and was encouraged by God’s Word. His faithfulness is to all generations.

God was faithful to that blind woman.

God was faithful to St. Patrick.

God is faithful to me.

And He will continue to be faithful …


Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.
Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
Know that the LORD Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and no we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.