A Hymn With My Father

I always have music running through my mind.  It can be anything from bad 80's music (yes, just because it's bad, that doesn't stop my brain from playing it over and over and over...), to something more recent and harder rock, to hymns.  It's pure torture if it happens to be a country song.  Not a fan of country music, unless it's George Strait, but that's another story.  Sometimes it's just a snippet of a song if that's all I know of it, sometimes it's only a verse or maybe just the chorus, but there is always something running through the soundtrack of my mind.  This morning, it was the hymn "I Surrender All".

Written in 1896, this is a hymn that I have heard and sung many times through the years.  I only know the first verse and chorus by heart, for the rest, I would need a hymnal, or in this case, Google.  Anyway, this was running through my head this morning.  I wasn't singing or even humming out loud, but as I listened to it in my mind for who knows how long, it hit me that my dad was singing harmony!

So, I listened more closely.  Yep, definitely Dad.  Countless times I had been next to him in church as we sang this hymn, and he would always sing the harmony part.  There have been other times since my dad died that I have "heard" him singing something, but for some reason, it really hit me today. Usually it happens in church with a familiar hymn or praise song, and I will stop singing myself and just listen to Dad.  He was a much better singer anyway, and I'd rather hear him than me any day.  Today, I decided to experiment a little.  If I quietly hummed, could I still hear him singing his part?  Yes!  If I upped the volume on my humming could I still hear him?  Yes!  If I sang out loud, could I still hear him?  Yes!  It is no small thing for me to hear him singing harmony, when this is something I cannot do myself.  I've always wanted to be able to harmonize, but it is not a talent I was given.

None of this is really earth-shattering, but when I stop to think about it, it blows my mind!  How awesome is our God as creator, that this soft, squishy stuff, so fragile that it is encased in our skulls for protection, can be so powerful as to allow me to share a hymn with my father over seven years after his death, and I can really hear his voice?

Amazing!  And I am so very thankful for this gift.


I Surrender All

All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

Refrain:  I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior,
I surrender all.

 

All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

Refrain

 

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

Refrain

 

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

Refrain

 

All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!

Refrain