Bedtime lullabies

     Ever since my girls were babies, I would sing two hymns to them at night.  Lying in bed, rubbing their backs or gently rocking them these words were softly sung calling out truth and singing it over their lives.  I think this became one of my favorite hymns to sing to them because I liked the way Imago Dei, the church we were a part of in Portland, OR, sang it.  It stirs something in me.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Sufjan Stevens

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, ever ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy unchanging love

 

     As I held my little blessings in my arms, so thankful for the grace of being able to conceive and carry a child after 4 years of struggling to have our firstborn, these words became so poignant.  Calling out to be taught words higher than we could sing, words of praise beyond the praise we can find for His high and unchanging love, for His divine intervention in the lives of men!  I understand that longing for words of praise more adequate, more holy and beautiful than ones I know.

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Here there by Thy great help I've come                          
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home                                                
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God

     Ebenezer - a stone of remembrance.  Abraham raised several of these, Jacob raised up the stone he used for a pillar the night GOD came to him in a dream with a promise to be His God, and he raised it up and worshiped.  I have a little china plate with stones upon it - words written on them of victories GOD has accomplished for me, times He has carried me through.  This was part of a devotional time led by a dear friend in WA state, my prayer partner, medical clinic manager and right hand Deana Schlauch.  It's good, important to remember and set up physical evidences to help us remember...and worship.  They go hand in hand.  Days get dark and it can be hard to see the truth or feel it, but remembering what He has done can renew our hope and trust for what He will yet do. 

He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be
Let that grace now, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee                                      
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart. O, take and seal it

Seal it for Thy courts above.

     I was in danger and didn't know it.  I was floundering, helpless and condemned to death under God's righteous wrath for my sin, corrupting in my body what was meant to be holy, which was created for communion with the Divine.  And He took it all on Himself.  He bore the whole weight of that, stepped into the danger and rescued me that I might never know it.  How keenly I've felt the need for His grace to constrain and bind myself to Him, to keep me, to seal my heart in love for Him above all else, preparing me as a bride for THAT DAY.  One day we will walk with the angels in the everlasting light of His presence and it will all make sense, be oh so much more than worth it.  Our petty wandering, complaining, distrust, fears will seem so paltry, so feeble, but we will see His hand upholding us and loving us through it all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUhU0HgTq

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GSv8Cv516U         

More story behind the hymn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7L87jG-DEU

    My daughters are growing up now, but I'll still sometimes sing this song over them, when they've awakened from a bad dream, are struggling or tired.  Timeless truth with a beautiful lilting tune.

 

Masquerade ball last night