A - Z Challenge - E: Ebenezer

All day today I've had a line from that beautiful song, 'Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing'* going through my head: 

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Here by Thy great help I've come

My Ebenezer. Nothing to do with Scrooge, other than that Scrooge was named after one of these, I guess, but an intriguing word indeed. 

Let me point you towards 1 Samuel 7:12.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

A stone named Ebenezer. 

Samuel set it up to mark God's faithfulness so far on his journey. 'Lord, you have helped us get this far'. In the song, the same. The writer of the song is saying that in some way he is marking this point in his journey, and thanking God that it is because of His help that they have reached this point. 

As I said at the beginning of this little A-Z expedition, I am setting the bar low on my blog posts - a lot has happened since the days I used to be a prolific poster and I've had numerous false dawns where I've intended to get back into it and failed. So, nothing earth shattering happening here, if you happen to be reading. 

No profound conclusions or inspiring reflection. 

Just this: I wonder whether this blog post, eleven years since I started writing, is a kind of Ebenezer for me. 

I am still here, I am still following Jesus, I am still trying to communicate the wonder, awe and comfort that He gives to me. 

I could neither have begun this journey, continued to walk it, nor found the path again all the times I've wandered from it, without his help. 

A metaphor for life, indeed. 

The song goes on: 

And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home

Amen, Lord. 

And Just like Samuel, I am saying to anyone who is listening: If He's brought me safe this far, I think He'll bring me home.  

'Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing' by Robert Robinson, 1758. Words and music in the public domain.