One Wednesday night a month, our church moves our mid-week service to the local nursing home.
It just so happens that two of the previous pastors of our church are now residents there.
Some days, they’ll know you, and some days, they won’t….but no matter what kind of day they are having, they always know who Jesus is.
Always.

Last night, I watched as one of them remembered every word and sang along to “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” and “Victory in Jesus.”
Our young people got up and sang “Jesus Loves Me,” and each time they got to the chorus, he sat there with closed eyes and sang, “Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so!”

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it takes something to shake me out of just going through the motions and singing the same songs over and over again.
Sometimes, it takes something special to cause me to pay attention to the words of a familiar song, and it’s like I’m hearing it for the first time.
Sitting there last night, watching this preacher who has served God most of his life sing that he knows Jesus loves him because the Bible he holds so dear says so caused me to think about “Jesus Loves Me” differently.
It isn’t just a song for kids to sing, but the truth is for adults as well.

If the God of the Bible has kept every promise He’s ever made, and has loved us all the days of our lives, He’ll love us to the very end…because He said so.

I then watched as my husband got up and preached from Isaiah 53 on the Lamb of Calvary.
He got to verse 6, which says:
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
He brought out the fact that Jesus went to the cross, not only for us, but because of us.
It was my sin and your sin that caused the suffering and pain our Lord so gladly endured.

This precious preacher sat with closed eyes, nodding in agreement as his Savior was being exalted. Every now and then, he would open his eyes and quietly say, “Glory! Praise the Lord! Amen!”

He listened as my husband preached on the Lamb that was bruised for our iniquities…and that it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, because we are the reward of His suffering. We are what He gained by enduring the cross.
And he worshipped.

He may not remember any of us, but he knows that Lamb who sacrificed Himself so that He could purchase a boy from the mountains of North Carolina and call him to preach the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Seeing him worship caused me to worship the One who is faithful to the very end.

Just as the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world arrived on the scene in God’s timing, went to the cross as the prophets foretold, arose from the grave and ascended back to the Father just as He said He would… He has proven He can be trusted.
God protected this preacher as he fought on the beaches of Normandy in World War 2, and brought him safely home. He has watched over him throughout his whole life, and He won’t fail him at the end.

The same goes for you and I.
Everything and everyone else may fail us and let us down, but rest assured, we can trust Jesus.

“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” ~Psalms 37:25

“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 on My bosom be borne.” ~from “How Firm a Foundation”