This morning at church we sang the song “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” What a beautiful song with such meaningful words. I love the line “Morning by morning, new mercies I see” in the chorus. I think if we look, most of us can see those new mercies or blessings each and every day.
A little history of the song– The words were written as a poem by Thomas O. Chisholm in 1923 about God’s faithfulness over his lifetime. While he wrote it as poem he must have had hope it would be a song since he sent the words to William Runyan who set the poem to music. It was published by Hope Publishing Company, a business that Runyan was affiliated with.
The heart and inspiration for the song is Lamentations 3:22-23.
It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
The song became widely known after it became a favorite of Dr. William Henry Houghton of the Moody Bible Institute and Billy Graham, who used the song frequently on his international crusades.
I’m guessing by now you’re wondering what kittens have to do with new mercies and blessings. You see, these kittens turned out to be unexpected blessings today at my house. I don’t have a cat. I have dogs and Frankie is not a cat loving dog unless it’s to chase them if they cross his path when we are walking out on the farm. But today, my son and family came to celebrate Mother’s Day a week early since next weekend is busy for my son. My granddaughter comes in the house to tell me there are two kittens beside my front deck and two more still under the deck. Little kittens. Hmm.
For the last year, I have been putting out cat food in our shed in hopes of enticing one of the unclaimed cats in the neighborhood to be a varmint catcher in the shed and our garden. The food disappears every day, but I never see the cat. I did put a trail camera out there to see if it was a cat and not a raccoon or possum. And then the last few weeks we had seen this calico cat in the yard but it always ran away if I tried to make its acquaintance.
But obviously she had been around here a lot and obviously she had kittens under our deck. Kittens that were much friendlier than mama. That surprised me because I remember finding baby kittens when I was a kid and the kittens generally weren’t happy to be disturbed by humans and would hiss at me. These four kittens crawled out of hiding and into the kids’ laps.
Anyway, I have been sort of wanting a cat to decide my yard was home. And the grandkids really, really enjoyed playing with the kittens today. So for us, the kittens were a surprise blessing. Okay, so maybe one of those blessings a person is not totally sure what to do with it. For certain, my husband didn’t feel blessed at all. He, like Frankie, is not a cat lover.
But the kids and I thought they were a surprise blessing for our Sunday. And come tomorrow, we can expect new mercies, new blessings as we depend on the Lord. “Great is thy faithfulness” has beautiful words and is now in the public domain. So I can share the words here. Maybe you can sing along as you read them.
The first verse talks about how God is the same and unchangeable.
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
The second verse tells how nature shows us the Lord’s mercies.
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
The last verse is our personal assurance of God’s love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
And the chorus has that line I like from Lamentations 3:23.
“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!
One more thing in this already overlong post. In my first Hidden Springs mystery, I let Aunt Lindy love this Bible verse about God’s great faithfulness. I posted about that four years ago and shared a scene from the story. You can see it here if you’re interested. Since then the song has been a favorite of mine.
So, while surprise kittens might not be a blessing/mercy I might have expected, it was fun.
Have you ever had an unexpected blessing/mercy surprise you? Maybe a litter of cats you weren’t expecting?
Comments 7
I’m not sure if it was a blessing, because I’m definitely a dog person. But many years ago we had a beautiful mama barn cat named Whiskers. She had long grey & white hair and long whiskers. One summer day, we discovered that she’d snuck inside (not hard to do with a houseful of kids), and she had a litter of kittens up under the sofa. She actually clawed inside the lining to have them. We ended up keeping them on the enclosed back porch awhile to protect them from the barn owl and hawks on the farm. I guess that’s why she came inside, since that was one of the only times we ever had kittens survive.
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I guess she was one smart cat, Lavon. That was interesting that she had the kittens inside. Somebody must have noticed pretty quickly or she would have had trouble getting inside to feed them. We didn’t notice these kittens until they were able to crawl out from under the deck. Guess we don’t spend enough time on the deck. A couple of years ago the neighbor’s rabbits had babies under there. Another challenge for me to keep Frankie away from them. They made it to adulthood and went back to the neighbors.
Love the photos of the kittens. They are
endearing, even for us dog folks. A blessing
of their own kind.
Many years ago, I adopted a young Sheltie named Abby. To my surprise, she was the sister of my previous rescue, Freddie. Their bond was instant and inseparable. Abby was a troubled pup – she had been in two placements where she was mistreated and began to bare her teeth. She was going to be euthanized, but circumstances intervened. Over time, with great patience and love – and Freddie at her side – she healed and was an amazing and beautiful companion. Mercy and blessings of the Father – all around!
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You definitely rescued that dog, Mary Clare. I’m glad things worked out for Abby, Freddie and you. Shelties are such pretty dogs.
I had a pure white cat to come in my yard one time, she looked so hungry, I gave her something to eat. I kept feeding her because I like cats and she started looking better as she filled out. One day she brought several kittens out from the woods to the back porch so I could start feeding them. They were so cute, but I had to give them away, we couldn’t have so many cats.
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Cats do seem to produce more cats, Connie. We haven’t had any cats since we moved here many years ago, but I started feeding one of the neighbor cats in hopes of discouraging chipmunks from eating my strawberries last year. I never saw the cats except on my trail camera, but it was never the cat that had the kittens. I will have to give away these kittens too if they ever come out from under my deck. I wouldn’t mind keeping a couple, but my husband is firmly against cats and then there’s Frankie who only wants to chase cats. Trouble waiting to happen there.