This week we have pondered the miracles of Jesus. As each story unfolds we have seen people follow Jesus while others walk away. Faith is not receiving the answer to prayer that we want and then believing the giver is able but rather it is trusting that the giver, God in Jesus, will give the best possible answer. That’s hard because the end of our story is not known in the middle of its unfolding. Jesus met too much demand and too little resources by feeding 5000 men plus women and children with two fish and five loaves of bread. He multiplies. He walked on water and invited Peter to join him outside the box of normal experience. He demonstrated power over satanic forces, perhaps mental illness, restoring a man to himself. And then he called back Lazarus from the dead. He can resurrect our death experiences. The choice to believe is ours. But not all are healed and not all stories have happy endings.
Fanny Crosby became blind at six months due to improper medical treatment. She was blind but she wrote poetry. She came from a very poor family. One day she needed $5 which was probably a lot of money in the 1870s and had none. So she decided to pray. A few moments later a stranger walked to the door and handed her $5. There was no explanation. So touched by God’s care for her, she sat down and wrote a poem. One day I was asked to go to a women’s conference but it would cost $200 and we had no extra money. The church offered to pay half the cost so I accepted. I hung up the phone and walked to the mailbox and there was a letter for me from my home church states away. There was a check for $200 from an anonymous donor. I know these things happen!
Fanny wrote the poem “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” and her friend Dr. Lowry set it to music and it was first published in 1875.
All the way my Savior leads me
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His faithful mercies?
Who through life has been my guide
Heavenly peace, divinest comfort
Ere by faith in Him to dwell
For I know whate’er fall me
Jesus doeth all things well
All of the way my Savior leads me
And He cheers each winding path I tread
Gives me strength for every trial
And He feeds me with the living bread
And though my weary steps may falter
And my soul a-thirst may be
Gushing from a rock before me
Though a spirit joy I see
And all the way my Savior leads me
Oh, the fullness of His love
Perfect rest in me is promised
In my Father’s house above
When my spirit clothed immortal
Wings it’s flight through the realms of the day
This my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way
On the Way to Wonder 