Good hymns, good history

Today we sang two great hymns in church: "Amazing Grace" and "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."

All my life, "Amazing Grace" had four verses. Suddenly the last few years it has a new verse in the middle. I'm not complaining; it's a great verse:

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

We sang Luther's hymn, of course, because today is Reformation Day, the anniversary of the day he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church and sparked the Protestant Reformation.

Sola scriptura ("Scripture alone")
Sola fide ("faith alone")
Sola gratia ("grace alone")
Solus Christus ("Christ alone")
Soli Deo gloria ("glory to God alone")

The Reformation spread to the Netherlands, where the Reformed Church formulated itself on the theology of John Calvin. In the 19th Century, certain members of the Reformed Church in the Netherlands and in North America seceded and formed the Christian Reformed Church. In 1876, the Christian Reformed Church in North America founded Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the early 20th Century, certain of my ancestors left the Netherlands for the U.S., and in 1949 both my parents matriculated there from different parts of the country (East and West). In 1952 they got married.

So the path in history is clear. The Protestant Reformation led directly to my existence. A mysterious way, indeed, in which that wonder was performed.