Pondering a change that slipped up on me <3

On Sunday, our praise team opened with an old one. They even stayed true to the tune and lyrics with no modern bridge or chorus added. I do not ever sing “How Great Thou Art” that I can’t hear my mom’s voice next to me singing along. 

It was a favorite of hers. 

I hear the strains of a violin as Sarah played it at her funeral. 

I know it by heart. 

My guess is, our kids might as well. 

They for sure are familiar enough with it that they could fake their way through most of it without looking. 

I have sung it as a child, nestled between my parents and I can remember singing it with my mom’s mom and her sister many a Sunday at Trinity Methodist Church on visits home to Louisville. 

I have sung it with our own three scattered around our feet over the years and later as teens standing beside us in a variety of churches. 

And it occurred to me that I have never sung it with our grandchildren around us. 

While I love the many songs we sing, I confess a longing for this generation to know the hymns that we grew up on. I also long for children to sit with their parents through an entire worship service. I miss getting a bulletin out for a child to draw on and a sleepy head resting on my shoulder. 

Church is changed. 

Children and teens have their own worship services now. 

People watch online. 

I miss the generational body of Christ, fidgeting in the pew, heads nodding off at times…heads of all sizes and hair color. I miss hearing a baby start to cry and a parent gently rocking it to calmness or hurriedly grabbing a diaper bag and rushing out the back. 

Not much I can do about change, except talk about it…process it…grieve a bit and move on. 

But I have been considering where and when I can slip an a cappella “How Great Thou Art” in now and again when they are trapped in our car for a ride to practice. I better work on it a bit…don’t want to traumatize them when I butcher the higher notes. <3