You will notice that it has been nearly 3 months since I blogged. It isn't that I haven't had ideas for posts, only that life has been happening and there hasn't been a surplus of energy for writing. I think I feel ready to 'put pen to paper' as it were, and share an experience from mid-March.
One of my choir members plays in the Mennonite Community Orchestra here in Winnipeg and invited me to attend the spring concert. We are fortunate to have the Canadian Mennonite University in our city, and the student choirs participated in the program. It was a blessing to me to hear the 4 different ensembles, as well as the orchestra, in performance. It reminded me of my own student days singing in Choral Society - Faure's Requiem, Haydn's Creation, etc.
The women's choir began their selections by singing a lovely arrangement of "In the Sweet By and By". I grew up singing this hymn (although not the way they sang it!) and at first I was caught up in remembering that.
There's a land that is fairer than day
and by faith we can see it afar;
For the Father waits over the way,
To prepare us a dwelling place there.
Then they came to the chorus:
In the sweet by and by
We shall meet on that beautiful shore.
Words by S.F. Bennett
Emotionally, I 'lost it' then. Tears ran silently down my cheeks as I struggled for control. At that moment, my father-in-law was slowly failing in a hospital bed a thousand miles away. I guess that chorus became a far-off goodbye from me, in a way. A month earlier we had been there to visit, and I said to him then, "No matter what Dad, I'll see you again." His faith was strong; I have no doubt that God has welcomed him home.
This hymn will always carry a shadow with it now. In my childhood years, I sang it gleefully, knowing that heaven was that 'beautiful shore'. The glee has mellowed to ... what? Comfort tinged by sadness - happiness tempered by life perhaps. This experience has again reminded me of the power of music, and especially music and words together - unquestionably a topic for another post.
3 comments:
Oh, AuntE, I am so sorry about the loss of your father-in-law.
Yes, words and music together have a definite emotional power in our lives and there is such a beauty in that. Knowing that we are made in God's image makes me wonder about how He feels when we sing in worship of Him.
Thank you Dorothy.
Your last sentence is thought provoking... hmmm. :)
Thanks for your reference to the gospel song "Sweet By and By." Today is the 174th anniversary of the birth of the author, Sanford Bennett. If you don't know the story behind the song, I invite you to check out my daily blog on hymns for today, Wordwise Hymns.
As to the power of words and music together, click here to see an article I wrote about that... http://wordwisehymns.com/2009/09/02/why-christians-sing/
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