I Love to Tell the Story, LBW 390 & ELW 661
1 I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love.
I love to tell the story, because I know it’s true;
it satisfies my longings as nothing else would do.
Refrain
I love to tell the story;
I’ll sing this theme in glory
and tell the old, old story
of Jesus and his love.
2 I love to tell the story: how pleasant to repeat
what seems, each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet!
I love to tell the story, for some have never heard
the message of salvation from God’s own holy word.
Refrain
3 I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song,
how Christ, the gift from heaven, is God’s great gift of grace.
Refrain
Devotion
As a young pastor a half century ago, I was pleased, yet puzzled at the loyalty and devotion of so many church members in their senior years. Men and women in their sixties, seventies and older were continually present in the life of the church and encouraging to their pastor. I knew that they had far more experience with life than I did; and more years in the church also. Yet they respected my role as pastor and showed appreciation for my ministry when they could easily have been critical. Why did they keep on coming?
Then one day, singing one of our best loved hymns, the last stanza spoke to me in a new way . . .
“I love to tell the story for those who know it best
seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest”
As a retired pastor, I now realize it is not only singing and hearing those words, it is the wonderful reality that I am in the story, and always have been. Years of preaching have not dulled the words of that story, for I-like those seniors of years ago-keep on learning how much it is my story.
Prayer
Help me, God, to keep repeating the story of Jesus. Amen.