Now She Beholds Him
Gospel music lost one of the greatest writers today in an automobile accident. Dottie Rambo went home to be with the Lord.
Dottie has been in severe back pain for several years and her voice wasn’t as smooth as it used to be, but listen to her sing “Sheltered in the Arms of God” with Porter Waggoner’s voice over the track. He had already died by the time she sang this song and hence the tears.
Dottie wrote so many beautiful inspirational songs that I can’t tell you all of them. Among my favorites: “If That Isn’t Love”, “We Shall Behold Him”, “He Looked Beyond My Faults and Saw My Needs” “Too Much to Gain to Lose”, “Tears Will Never” (see below) among so many others.
Throughout the ’60s and ’70s, Dottie Rambo, her husband Buck, and their daughter Reba, made up The Singing Rambos, one of the most successful southern gospel trios of all time. As the group’s main songwriter, Dottie was prolific. Today, hardly any modern hymnal fails to include one or more of her 2,500 songs. Dottie’s best-known song, by far, is the inspirational “He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need.”
In 1970, Dottie began writing a song about the grace of God, but was unable to finish it. When her older brother was hospitalized with cancer and told that he had only weeks to live, Dottie sat by his bedside and ministered to him. Within a few days, she persuaded him to marry the woman who had borne him five children. Dottie read the Bible to him and prayed with him. One day, after singing at a concert, she returned to ask: “Have you given your life to Jesus since I’ve been gone?”
Eddie, 37, stared at her with sad eyes. “After the wicked life I’ve lived, the Lord won’t raise a person like me,” he muttered. He reminded her of his time in jail and his addiction to drugs and alcohol.
“The Lord left the 99 to bring a lost sheep like you back to the fold,” Dottie told him. She continued to pray for his salvation. Then she went home and finished “He Looked Beyond My Fault.” For years Jimmie Davis, the southern gospel singer and former Louisiana governor, had asked her to write a song to the tune of “Danny Boy.” With this song, she finally discovered the inspiration. Later that day, she returned to the hospital to sing the song to Eddie.
On Sunday, after she finished singing in an Ohio church, Dottie felt the Holy Spirit’s assurance that Eddie had been converted. Hurriedly returning to Tennessee, she found her brother so weak that he could barely talk. “Yesterday I gave my heart to the Lord and he forgave me,” he whispered in Dottie’s ear. “When I get to heaven, I’ll wait for you at the Pearly Gates so we can enjoy heaven together.”
Before he died, Eddie asked his sister to sing “He Looked Beyond My Fault” at his funeral.
The experience left Dottie even more determined “to share with the many hurting and wounded people in this world the wonderful message of God’s great and unconditional love.”
Showing no signs of slowing down after 50 years of songwriting, Dottie continues to speak at seminars and appear on Christian television. Since July, she has been celebrating the release of her new album, Stand By The River, which includes an updated version of “He Looked Beyond My Fault.” Dottie tells fans that she sings “He Looked Beyond My Fault” every night, even if she’s not performing. “It continues to feel like a brand-new song to me,” she says. “The joyful news of God’s grace never grows old.”
I feel as though I have lost a special friend whose music has brought me through many sad and hard times.
You are truly sheltered in the arms of God today, Dottie. I’ll meet you in Glory.
Written by Jeanette