In the past several years there has been quite a bit said about the words lean and leaning. There is a social media executive that used the word in a book and many people thought it was a new and novel term. The term is neither new or novel.

My oldest daughter started a women’s bible study a couple years ago called “Our Tuesdays.” It is widely attended and is incredible. This month it was family night and therefore I attended the study. The band handling the music sang the old hymn, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” which was written in 1887. As with many of the old hymns, they reach me in a deep way because I have been hearing them all my life including the nine months before I was born. Ha

As I was listening to that old song, I began to think about the words, lean and leaning. The word lean was first used in the bible in the book of Genesis written in 1450bc. The word is used 11 times in the old testament to indicate moving toward something or bracing yourself against someone. The point is that God invented the use of the word “lean” centuries before social media.

I won’t write all the lyrics, but the first three lines read, “what a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms.”

Everyone reading this blog regardless of your status in life, needs someone to lean on. Could there be a better place to lean, than on the everlasting arms of God? KT