It was Tuesday, chapel day at our Christian school. The classes filed in from various parts of the school, some chatting, some giggling, some still trying to wake up. The primary class was always late. They squished all together at the end of the front pew, even though there was plenty of room next to their teacher.
The little kindergarteners gazed up at Benjamin leading the singing. Laura, at the piano, played the introduction of “Beulah Land”. The little kids knew this song well and bellowed out the chorus.
"I'm living on the mountain...."
After singing a couple more songs and ending with "This is the Day", Mr. Gross,our high school teacher, leaned against the podium. He smiled at Daniel, who was trying to squeeze between Austin and Paul.
What was the first song we sang?”
This was his usual question and hands wiggled in the air.
“What does Beulah Land mean?”
This was a harder question and he had to call on a highschooler for an answer.
Glancing at his watch, he asked the administrator, “Is our special speaker here yet?”
Receiving a shake of the head, he proceeded to walk us through the lessons in the next song, “Redeemed.” Mr. Gross explained the wonderful plan God created to buy back his children back from the power of sin.
Mr. Gross gave a thoughtful smile and asked a youngster, “Would you be glad if your bike broke, or if your cat ran away?”
The whole first pew of students all shook their heads.
“Did God know it would happen?” They all nodded in unison.
“God knows everything that will happen. Even if we think it may not be good, it’s all part of God’s plan. We need to trust in His wisdom and not let things upset us or make us angry. ‘This is the day that the Lord hath made.’ We should rejoice in the fact that He is our God and that He is in control of everything.”
The special speaker never arrived, so with a closing prayer, Mr. Gross dismissed everyone back to their classrooms. I thought of his words as looked over my lessons for the day. I wondered what the day would bring our way. As my students sharpened their pencils and opened their spelling books, I wrote the date on the chalkboard, September 11, 2001.
4 comments:
I can picture Mr. Gross in Chapel. Heavy duty memories of that day, Vonnie. Sunny
Wow. What a wonderful lead-in (for lack of a better term!) to the day. God is certainly in control. Thank you for sharing.
Incredible, Vonnie. What a perfect blog post for this day. Incredible.
Oh man, I got goose bumps. How chilling. I like how you assumed the reader would know what you were implying. Very nice blog entry.
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