Oh, happy day!

O, happy day (Oh happy day)

O, happy day (Oh, happy day)

When Jesus washed, He washed the sins away

He taught me how to watch, fight and pray

Fight and pray

And live rejoicing ev’ry day, e’ry day

Had the song been written, I think it might have been sung on that first Easter morning, perhaps by a heavenly choir.   Mary, Peter and another disciple had gone to the tomb where Jesus was buried and where their hopes for this man of God might have seemed buried, too.  But, the stone had been rolled away, and they were about to discover the great victory God had put together in what had appeared to them as certain defeat.  How could these joyous, melodious words they would have heard been true?  But it was, indeed, a happy day achieved by the faithfulness and power of God Himself.

How, you might be wondering, did I come up with the possibility of the song "Oh, Happy Day, (a 1967 gospel music arrangement by Edwin Hawkins), ringing out for any and all to hear on what would become our Easter morning?  The answer is simple:  viewing the last half of the movie Secretariat just yesterday afternoon.  Something I have teased my husband somewhat mercilessly about brought me back to seeing with “eyes of faith” that takes us beyond what this world throws at us. 

My husband has this interesting habit of checking out movies on television at whatever point in the story he happens to tune in.  Despite my suggestions that movies have a beginning, middle and end meant to be seen in that order for a reason, he still continues to delight in catching even a bit of a movie here and there.  I have recently brought it to his attention that starting times for movies at the theaters are printed in the paper for a reason.  Still, he continues his unusual viewing habits, and today I would add, thankfully so.

At the point we tuned in, Penney Tweedy, Secretariat’s determined owner, had been thwarted yet again as she tried to keep her father’s farm afloat and a horse’s promising chance for winning and winning big alive and well.  As she looks out over the stables and sees the horse’s groomer washing him down, she hears this gospel hymn playing on the groomer’s radio.  Somehow her spirits revive, and she joins in with the washing, perhaps ridding herself of this most recent setback.  She moves forward with her faith and determination that this horse has the potential to achieve not only winning the upcoming Kentucky Derby, but going all the way and winning the triple crown, something that had not been done for about 25 years.  And win it all she did with faith and courage after noting that you can’t earn a reward “without taking a risk.”

A troubling, painful and somewhat disabling medical condition finally getting a name—not the worst, but not the best—feels a little like Easter morning with its seeming disappointment, grief and disappearing hopes and dreams.  But like the record breaking horse, I have been “in training,” drinking in the living water and drawing deep into the well of faith and hope and trust, God-given virtues and strengths of God-seeking people so beautifully depicted in the scriptures.

Today we bought our own copy of the movie, and I watched it, start to finish, just to see how that works as opposed to “bits and pieces” viewing by someone I live with.  Stories of courage and hope that beat the odds can point us toward parallels in our Christian endeavors.  “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen” as described in the well-known faith chapter in Hebrews 11.  Surely believing in God can be even more rewarding and joyous than believing in even the finest race horses.