Redeemed and Adopted

I love this picture.  It's wonderful to have such joy in a desert place..  It's getting late but I still have hope that something will yet happen today to give me reason to bust out laughing.   Last night it was the sight of our large dog trying to sleep in a bed meant for a cat.  That poor girl is still trying to get the hang of living in a real home.   She came to us after being rescued from an animal shelter's death row.   She had spent most of her life living on her own, relying on the kindness of strangers.  She wouldn't allow anyone near her at the shelter and consensus was that she couldn't be domesticated.   A kind woman thought otherwise.  She brought her home and cared for her until she could be put up for adoption.   Then she came to live with us.   She's been challenging, stubborn, prone to wander but joyously grateful in returning.  She's much like most of us.  I look at her as she rests at my feet and I'm thankful that my God thought me redeemable, that He sent His Son to take my place on death row and gave me a home with Him.   I am gratefully His.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.