Here I Raise Mine Ebenezer

Here I Raise Mine Ebenezer

This familiar line from the hymn, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, has become very special to me since last Christmas. (The word Ebenezer means "stone of help" and was the name of a monument raised by the prophet Samuel, saying, "Thus far has the Lord helped us" (1 Sam. 7:12.)) I had retired in June 2012 after serving thirty-two years as a UM pastor in Florida. Since my wife, Cheryl, and I had lived in church parsonages all of our married life, the Christmas season was especially meaningful because the week after Thanksgiving we had moved into our first home. Then the phone rang.

A few weeks earlier Cheryl had been notified that the radiologist had found something suspicious on her mammogram. The re-test was inconclusive and a biopsy was scheduled. The hospital had called the day before and said the results were negative. On this day, we were going to be celebrating the good news with friends at a Celtic Christmas Concert. Then the phone rang. It was Cheryl’s doctor with news that the hospital had made an error. The biopsy was in fact positive for cancer. Cheryl was scheduled for surgery on January 9, 2013.

Five days after Cheryl’s surgery I felt tightness in my chest while working out at the Y. My doctor sent me to the hospital for an x-ray and blood tests and told me to wait there until he called. Then the phone rang. It was my doctor telling me to go to the ER where they would be expecting me.

“Why?”

“Because the blood tests revealed you are having a heart attack right now!”

Thirty minutes later I was riding in an ambulance to Mission Hospital for quadruple cardiac bypass surgery.

For the next three months Cheryl underwent radiation treatments and I went to cardiac rehab. Throughout this time we were enveloped in love and support by our pastors, our Sunday school class and our neighbors. Every need was met, even volunteers walking our dogs. For a while the scar in the center of my chest was a painful reminder of the ordeal we encountered last Christmas. Now the scar is my personal Ebenezer; a reminder that “God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Alex M. Knight

Advent 2013

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.