“Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.”

It was at least 80 years ago that the young Georgia boy sat at his mother’s knee whilst she read through her Bible study, humming her favorite hymn, “Amazing Grace.”

It was 25 years ago on a hot June day the nervous bride held tightly on to her dad’s arm as the Scottish bag piper lilted out the notes of Amazing Grace. He led them down a makeshift aisle through a Virginia vineyard to speak forever vows to her once in a lifetime love.

It was one month ago that the eldest daughter, as a surprise to her mother and siblings bought a melodious wind chime that clanged out the notes of Amazing Grace to hang in a tree near her father’s freshly dug grave.

It was two weeks ago on a blue crisp August day that a Scottish bag piper led a procession of broken-hearted family into a grave yard to lay the remains of a husband, a father and a friend into the red Virginia clay he called home.

It was at the completion of a prayer that those same chimes caught the wind and gently rang the notes of finality of a funeral.

It was yesterday that I received a special gift from a loving friend, who knew nothing about the familial significance of the song Amazing Grace.

I was confused and surprised by the gift…but inside this precious bundle was a set of wind chimes, exactly like those next to my father’s grave. Perfect, beautifully ringing out the heavenly tones of, wouldn’t you know….Amazing Grace.

I cried for a solid hour…The sweetness of a friend’s heart. The goodness of a God who sees me and my broken mournful heart. Oh, the depth of that message received that my dad is well and kept in the arms of his Father.

How did my friend know? How could she know? She wasn’t even at the funeral. Was it just divine coincidence?

Well she didn’t know. At all. But God did. He whispered in her ear. She was obedient to his call. And that is His Amazing Grace. To me. To you. To us all.

‘Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,
And Grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come.
‘Tis Grace hath brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His Word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.