I absolutely love to wake up in the morning and even more when there's a song I have not heard or thought of in years. But in fact, "Until Then" is one song that I have always enjoyed even though it has not too often come to my thoughts.
My first recollection of this song was early in my teenage life when my family changed churches. I missed the old home church, but my Mom and Dad knew exactly what was the best for me and our family. The new church was smaller but had an amazing youth group as I have spoke of previously and it gave me the opportunity to sing which was good for me in so many ways. (Good for me, not so much for others LOL) "Until Then" was the pastor's song and he sang it from the heart and it was beautiful. He sang it often, but he was not the pastor too long after we joined and I do not recall anyone else singing it in church or anywhere else too much after that.
The writer of this song was Stuart Hamblen. Perhaps Mr. Hamblen was best known for a couple of other hymns, "It Is No Secret", "How Big Is God" and "Teach Me, Lord, To Wait". Born in Texas. moved to California, he was known as a singing cowboy, appearing in several movies and for being a radio talk host personality. He also wrote and recorded a several country songs. In 1949, he had a brief encounter during a prayer meeting with a young man named, Billy Graham. He invited Billy to his radio show to promote his tent revival and he did. The story of Stuart Hamblen's life is an interesting story and to my surprise, this morning, I found a link to Billy Graham and Mr. Hamblen telling some of it. (I love the internet!)
There are several links of "Until Then" I thought about posting. One of my favorite old gospel singers, Jake Hess and others like Jason Crabb, Jeff and Sheri Easter, Lynda Randle, Vestal Goodman, The Hoppers … there are so many awesome renditions of this great song. But I thought I would post, Mr. Hamblen's actual recording and a version by Janet Pascal during a Bill Gaither Tent Revival honoring Billy Graham.
I'll end this post with one additional note. If you listened to the Billy Graham link, you may have noticed him referring to Stuart Hamblen as being one of the greatest contemporary Christian song writers of that day. I, often a critic of today's contemporary Christian music, should remember, that today's music may well become a great hymn of tomorrow. I hope you will enjoy the old contemporary song, "Until Then" as much as I have this morning!
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