O LORD, WE LONG TO SEE YOUR FACE

Heather Allington

Heather writes for Sunday Song Book on behalf of the The Salvation Army Oshawa. As a lifelong member of the Army, she has loved these familiar - and some less familiar - songs for many years, and enjoys researching and writing about their origins. She is a wife, mother, grandmother and retired elementary school teacher who likes trying her hand at watercolour painting and poetry writing.

O Lord, we long to see Your face,
To know You risen from the grave,
But we have missed the joy and grace
Of seeing You as others have.
Yet in Your company we’ll wait
And we shall see You, soon or late.

O Lord, we do not know the way,
Nor clearly see the path ahead;
So often, therefore, we delay
And doubt Your power to raise the dead.
Yet with You we will firmly stay;
You are the Truth, the Life, the Way.

We find it hard, Lord, to believe;
All habit makes us want to prove;
We would with eye and hand perceive
The truth and person whom we love.
Yet, as in fellowship we meet,
You come Yourself each one to greet.

You come to us, our God, our Lord;
You do not show Your hands and side;
But faith has its more blest reward –
In love’s assurance we confide.
Now we believe, that we may know,
And in that knowledge daily grow.

These words seem more modern than many hymns, expressing, as they do, people’s difficulty in accepting on faith the Lord’s reality. Note the reference in the last verse to Thomas’ need to see and touch Christ’s wounds. It’s comforting, when we doubt, to know that other believers sometimes feel the same way, and then to experience God’s presence when we meet in Christian fellowship, as the third verse reminds us.

John R. Peacey was an Englishman who lived from 1896 to 1971. He served in the army in France in World War l. He was ordained as a minister in 1922 following his education at Selwyn College and the Clergy Training School in Cambridge. Peacey used his knowledge and teaching ability in various educational posts, including as headmaster of two schools in India. On returning to England, he held the honourable position of canon residentiary at Bristol Cathedral from 1945 to 1966, and retired in 1967. In retirement he served as a rural dean for two more years.