visualhymns

[visualhymns]

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

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This is the last song I sang for my paternal grandmother. She taught me so much about the Lord by example. She was constantly kind and nurturing. Her faith poured out of her in everything she did. When she was newly married and began taking her faith seriously as an adult, she figured that God would give her a beautiful voice to serve Him through song. She was rather tone-deaf and no transformation came. When she told her husband about this, he explained that even if she couldn’t sing, there were ways she could serve the Lord. So she cleaned the church, she cooked at church pot lucks, she ran women’s studies, and did all of this until she could do so no longer. Though she didn’t think of these things as talents, these skills were gifts from God.

[visualhymns]

Come Thou Fount

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This is one of the saddest hymns I know. The acknowledgment that we are “prone to wander” is heart wrenching. I added the little horse detail in this one because I read a story about the writer of this song humming the tune while in a carriage. A woman asked him about the song and somewhere in the conversation he admitted that he regrettably did not believe like he once did.

[visualhymns]

[visualhymns]

[visualhymns]

Rescue the Perishing

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This is probably my favorite hymn. I can't tell you why I associate this song with the color pink. Typically, we treat pink as a feminine, soft, delicate color. The lyrics of "Rescue the Perishing" are nothing but that. It is a rousing battle-cry type hymn, shown through lyrics like, "Rescue the perishing. Duty demands it. Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide." But within the same song, there is a call to softness, a call to gentleness. The listener is called by the tune to "Weep o'er the erring one," "Care for the dying," "Lift up the fallen," "Plead with them gently," and "Patiently win them." Perhaps this song is a beautiful reminder of how soft a difficult calling must be.

[visualhymns]

[visualhymns]

Marvel I

Genesis 35:29

So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

The stories of the Bible hit me deeper than any other stories I have known. I have spent much time wondering what Jesus must've felt while he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane or how Mary felt as her son was being crucified. Maybe it's the English major in me, but I adore reading into these stories, humanizing these people. It helps me understand and it helps me see God. I've been trying to read more of the Bible recently, so I have found a reading plan online that I have been following. I was afraid at first because it wanted me to read several chapters from the Old Testament each day. I have tried to read through the Bible before and I have trudged through the first few books of the Old Testament, only to quit. Part of my problem was that I read the words, not the people. Now, I try and imagine their faces, their emotions, their fears, their joys. I try to know them.

So, the story of Esau and Jacob has torn me up. Two brothers, different in every recognizable way, struggle against each other and their parents. Jacob, goes against his father and brother, listens to his mother, and steals Esau's birthright and blessing. Ouch. I cannot imagine the kind of pain that Esau must have felt, the amount of anger. Also, I cannot imagine the pain that Jacob must have felt when he realized what he had done. The Bible follows the life of Jacob, his wives, his children, his struggles, his fights, his fight with God. We see him and I can't help but wonder what his life would have been like with his brother. I imagine he wondered the same. Eventually, Jacob is lead by God to return to his brother and join again after all of these years. Jacob gathers everything he has and divides his camp in half, hoping to give his belongings and animals to his brother for a chance at finding favor in his eyes. But what happens when he sees his brother? Esau embraces him!

To me, this is a double miracle concerning the perfect timing of God. First, God let there be enough time for the brothers to cool down. They were angry and fearful of each other. Who knows what would have happened if they tried to reconnect too soon? Death, betrayal, lifelong division? The next miracle I see is found in Genesis 35:29. It reads "So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him." Read that last sentence again, "And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him." God brought Esau and Jacob together so their father could see their reunification and so they could mourn their father together.