He Was There All Time

© Copyright 2013 PJ Stassen

All Rights Reserved

God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.
- Jean Paul Richter, 1763-1825. 

  The first time that I heard this song was in 1981 or 1982 during a brief visit to a Church-conference in the picturesque Lakeside suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.  The name of the visiting speaker was Virgil Johnson from the USA who, on that day, introduced us to this song (as sung by his wife, Melonie Johnson, tape-recorded back in the US) with the aid of an ordinary audio-cassette which he had brought with him on his trip to Africa.   In those days audio cassettes were often used by independent, itinerant evangelists and preachers to supplement their income.  I bought a copy of the cassette and my father-in-law and I drove all the way back to his home in Hermanus, a beautiful seaside resort famous for its in-season whale-watching, listening to this moving song, the core message so reminiscent of the familiar Footprints In The Sand poem:

                                                YouTube                                                        

He Was There All The Time

(Gary S. Paxton, b.1939)

Time after time I was searching  for peace in some void;

I was trying to blame all my ills on this world I was in.

Surface relationships used me till I was done in,

 But all the while someone was begging to free me from sin.

Never again will I search for a fake rainbow's end;

Now that I've the answer my life is just starting to rhyme.

Sharing each new day with Him is a breath of fresh life;

Oh what I've missed He's been waiting right there all the time.

CHORUS:  He was there all the time,

He was there all the time.

Waiting patiently in line,

He was there all the time.

PS.  See (i) the original website for the Footprints In The Sand poem at <http://www.footprints-inthe-sand.com/index.php?page=Poem/Poem.php as well as 

(ii) Wikipedia at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footprints_(poem>.

Piet Stassen

Bibliography

1. Footprints In The Sand. Accessed At <http://www.footprints-inthe-sand.com/index.php?page=Poem/Poem.php
2.  ItTakesTwo. ‘Footprints In The Sand’. Accessed At <http://www.ittakestwo.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/600x600/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/v/e/verse169-f_1.jpg> [online] 2013.

3.  HymnLyrics.  ‘He Was There All The Time’.  Accessed At <http://www.hymnlyrics.org/newlyrics_h/he_was_there_all_the_time.php> [online] 2013.
4.  WellOfSalvation (Virgil Johnson Ministries). Accessed At http://www.joycostudios.com/virgil/index.htm. [online] 2013. 5.  Wikipedia at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footprints_(poem>.