hymn cards

I remember sitting beside Rory's grandpa's bed as he was beginning to pass away. Papa was a remarkable man, a powerful speaker and a passionate preacher. It felt odd to sit there and watch him sleep with such labored breathing, seemingly so far away. We decided to sing some hymns to him. For each hymn we could usually get through most of the first verse, belt out the chorus and then end up fumbling over words, inserting la la la's for unknown words and looking at each other in a panic and skipping to the chorus once again. I remember being overcome by giggles that night with Rory. We had been sad for long enough and our emotions snapped the other direction and our tears streamed not from crying, but from laughing, trying to sing verse two of "The Old Rugged Cross." Not the funniest song in the world, but that night, it had us in stitches. And even though this laughter was perfect and helpful for that moment, I still wished I had known the words. In general, I wish I had more lyrics committed to memory. I remember working on the advanced memory loss floor at Mount Olivet Home and beginning Beautiful Savior and listening to the residents sing all four verses. Men and women who didn't remember their own children would remember every word to every verse of these songs that had been shut up in their bones. So to help me, I made these hymn cards for our baby nursery. Rory and I are excited to sing these favorites to our little one. My plan is to have 6-7 hymns on rotation at a time. If I'm super ambitious, I'll change them for different seasons. (Christmas is just around the corner!) But at least we'll have the words visible to look at as we rock and snuggle and coo at each other. My Uncle Jake made the welded metal stand that they are sitting on and it's perfect. They are set on a shelf that looks directly at the glider rocker, so I have a feeling they actually will be used. I've been practicing already.