Daily Word of Grace # 58 (June 4, 2020)
I love riding trains. As a boy I took my first train ride from Washington, D.C. to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia and loved watching the scenery change outside the window, and that has never changed. In 1965, in the midst of the Civil Rights movement, the late Curtis Mayfield wrote his most famous song, “People Get Ready” for The Impressions. This song resonated during the Civil Rights era and continues to resonate even now: “People get ready, there’s a train a comin’. You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board. All you need is faith, to hear the diesels hummin’. Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.” That train can represent so many different things—love, hope, a second chance, a better tomorrow—and connects with the desire within all of us for all those things, and more. This train also describes the gospel of God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ, a train for which you indeed need no baggage because God offers to carry your baggage for you (Matthew 11:28), a train for which you indeed need no ticket because you have been bought by “the precious blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:19), a train for which indeed “all you need is faith” (Ephesians 2:8), a train for which the only response is indeed to “thank the Lord.” As the song continues we learn that this train is for all of us, no exceptions: “So people get ready for the train to Jordan, picking up passengers coast to coast. Faith is the key, open the doors and board ‘em. There’s hope for all among those loved the most”…and of course, “among those loved the most” includes you. Yes, as you ride this train the scenery outside the window is always changing, but God’s love never does.
Love and Prayers,
Dave