The word "hitherto" is like a hand pointing backward through time. Twenty years or seventy, and still the testimony stands: "Up to this very moment, the Lord has helped us!"

Through poverty and through wealth. Through sickness and through health. At home and far away. On land and on the sea. In honor and in dishonour. In perplexity and in joy. In trial and in triumph. In prayer and in temptation. Through it all, the Lord has helped us.

You know how delightful it is to look down a long avenue of trees, gazing through that living cathedral with its pillars of trunk and arches of leaves? Look down the long corridor of your years just like that. See the green branches of mercy overhead. See the strong pillars of loving-kindness and faithfulness that hold up every joy you've ever known. Listen! Don't you hear the birds singing in those branches? They're all singing the same song: mercy, mercy, mercy received up to this very day.

But "hitherto" doesn't just point backward. When someone marks a spot and writes "up to here," they're not finished yet. There's still road ahead. More trials, yes, but more joys too. More temptations, but more triumphs. More prayers and more answers. More work, but more strength. More battles, but more victories.

And then? Sickness will come. Old age. Disease. Death.

Is that the end? No! There's still more. Waking up bearing the likeness of Jesus. Thrones and harps and songs of praise. White robes and the face of Christ himself. The fellowship of all God's people. The glory of God in its fullness. Eternity stretching out forever. Joy without limit.

O take courage, believer! Raise your Ebenezer—your stone of remembrance—with grateful confidence. For the God who has helped you hitherto will help you all your journey through. And when you finally read your story in heaven's light, what a glorious tale your "hitherto" will tell!