One of the most famous English hymns of all time is “O Thou Fount Of Every Blessing”, and one of the most memorable lines of that hymn is from the second verse: “Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by thy help I’ve come.”
The word Ebenezer is a somewhat obscure Bible reference, coming from 1 Samuel 7, telling the story of a time when the Israelites won a victory against the Philistines. After pursuing the defeated army of the Philistines, the prophet Samuel sets up a memorial stone and names it Ebenezer, meaning “stone of help.” He raised this stone up as a reminder to Israel of how the Lord was with them and gave them help and success against the hand of their foes.
Many of you are aware that several months ago I received a sudden cancer diagnosis, and I have spent the time since then going in and out of the hospital on a weekly basis, receiving treatment and meeting with the doctors and nurses in charge of my care. Fortunately, by the grace of God, my treatment has been successful and highly effective, and I am now able to look forward to returning to a normal life relatively soon.
Naturally, this is the kind of life event that pushes you to think long and hard about spiritual things, and to consider what things are really important. I recently read an article where the writer described the idea of the Ebenezer stone as saying “If it weren’t for God’s help, I wouldn’t be here today.” After the recent events in my life, that statement means something a lot different to me now than it would have a few months ago. Were it not for the hand of God in my life, I might not have the same optimism for the future that I have now.
In truth, there isn’t anything different about my life now than there was before. Six months ago, I was just as dependent on God as I am now. What this illness has really done is given me a reminder of how deep my dependence on God has always gone, not just physically but spiritually. While I am glad to be able to start going back to a normal life, if I continue on from now and forget about what God has done for me in the last few months, I would be doing myself and God a great disservice.
The purpose of these kinds of experiences, which everyone will go through sooner or later, is so that they can become our own Ebenezer stones. These are things that we look back on and say, “I wouldn’t have made it through that without God.” And when we look at the hard times that will come again in our futures, we can say, “God has helped me so far, he will help me again.” They give us, as the hymn says, the hope that God will be with us until we safely arrive at home.
