singing with old friends... thank you God for such a blessing!

Wow!

what a weekend of praise... last weekend the trees and leaves screamed their brilliant and colorful praises to the King! And we got to experience one of the finest color shows on earth...

this past week, the wind sang its worship as it whistled and howled and blew the leaves to the ground... incredible! (and Sunday afternoon, Kelly and Cara and Cassie and I raked them up and bagged them and enjoyed a brilliant sunshiny day outdoors with Lucy the Wonderdog)

but Saturday was a highlight! When the First Day guys arrived in Mountain Home to rehearse before our engagement at the First Christian Church in Gainesville, we stopped by Jimmy and Charlene Horton's house to sing with them...

I have sung for all my life... I can't remember a time when I didn't. And my very earliest and fondest memories of singing are with Jimmy Horton leading hymns at worship assembly for College and North Church of Christ, which met at what is now the Jackson Rentals building... He is the only person I have ever known who used a tuning fork to pitch the songs...

anyhow, Jimmy's love of singing and passion for praise is unparalleled... (his understanding of shaped note music is also incredible!) ...and I can think of nobody who loves God and praising Him with song more than my dear old friend... his inimitable style and soaring tenor voice remain, for me, one of God's Greatest Gifts to any man.

So it was one of the greatest blessings of my entire life to be able to stop by Jimmy and Charlene's house to sing with them Saturday with my First Day friends.

We brought hymnals and sang a half dozen old hymns... and we sang a few songs from the First Day repertoire...

and we were blessed! and God was praised! and Jesus was glorified!

Jimmy and Charlene sang along with us (and, incidentally, the old boy can still sing!!!), and I was so moved by the experience, it was hard for me to find my voice at times...

If life is marked by mountain top experiences, Saturday was a very tall peak indeed...

If life is made richer by the people God places in your path, the Hortons have made me (and countless others) rich beyond measure!

Thank you, Jimmy and Charlene, for blessing my life. Thank you for Saturday.

thank you, God, for the Hortons.