Does your church use a regular benediction hymn or closing hymn to close a service and send the people on their way with a blessing?  Finding a good hymn to express a blessing can be a challenge and such was the case for Jeremiah Eames Rankin.  What does a poet do who cannot find the hymn that says what he or she wants?  They write their own.  Rankin did just that and from his pen flowed God be with You Till We Meet Again.  We abbreviate so many things in our lives and often rush to move on.  Can we take the extra couple of seconds to not merely say, "Good-bye", but to bless our brothers and sisters with the phrase that it represents, "God be with you"?  As one radio minister used to say to close his program, "Be a blessing today."

Article taken from Living Stories of Famous Hymns by Ernest K. Emurian. Copyright © 1955 by Baker Book House Company. Used by permission of Baker Book House Company.