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My
Soul Finally Sang Along - By Maura Mort maura@doronet.com
It’s amazing how an old hymn can bring out feelings, emotions and memories.
When I listen to the hymn “How Great Thou Art” I can hardly sing along
because I am so overwhelmed. The words are remarkable. The tune is
magical. The whole experience of the song is breathtaking.
My first experience with this hymn was as a child in church. There was a
huge, powerful pipe organ on the balcony in the back of the church. The
sound was so strong and resonated through your body. You couldn’t help
but
feel the music. This hymn in particular moved me in a way others did not.
I would stand with my family and we were supposed to face the alter and
keep our eyes forward. But all I wanted to do was turn around and watch
the
musicians. I wanted to watch them as they played this beautiful song.
The
way the melody and the chords moved up and down were just magical. I loved
it.
As a young adult, after many years of piano lessons, I would occasionally
play through my mother’s hymnals. When I found this hymn, I was so
excited
to play it. It wasn’t that hard and I played the notes fairly easily.
As
I sat there, I studied the words. What a musical and visual tribute to
God.
You can see the stars. You can hear the birds. You can feel the
breeze –
all that he created. Then your soul sings. The tune takes your whole
self
up to our Savior God. It gently brings you down as you sing the title.
But then it takes you up again to Him. But this time the phrase doesn’t
bring
you back. It leaves you up there amongst His wonder. My body and
soul
almost doesn’t seem ready to come down and sing about the next glorious
creation in the next verse.
Years later, my grandmother passed away. She lived a long, rich life with
a close family. She had 7 children and 32 grandchildren.
When she passed,
she had countless great grandchildren. She was the central force to us
all.
My grandfather had passed years before her but she seemed to be the bond
that held us together. The religious morals she instilled in her children
have continued into my generation and the next. She died in the week
before Easter – the holiest week of the year.
I went back to the church of my youth for her funeral and they started to
play “How Great Thou Art”. I stood there, unable to sing, unable to
move.
I was standing in this church, surrounded by my immediate family,
surrounded by cousins, aunts and uncles that I haven’t seen in years. I
had this
feeling of familiarity, of almost a childish nature. The hymn began to
sing to me in a new way. And even though Grandma Kloecker wasn’t
standing in
her regular pew with all of our families, as she was every other Sunday of her
life, she was almost inside of us as the song sang. She was saying, “I
am
here, I am home – let me fill your heart”. I glanced back at the
musicians
with a smile and then looked at the words of the song again. Then I
thought how great the Lord is, how great she is, how great all the things she
created. My soul finally sang along.
That was the last time we all were together - all one hundred or so of us
created through my grandmother. But the memory of that day, of her, my
childhood memories of church, will be relived every time I hear “How Great
Thou Art”.
My Soul Finally Sang Along - By Maura Mort maura@doronet.com
I am a stay-at-home mom, ex-elementary music teacher, piano teacher and I
conduct the children's choir at our church. I write stories dealing with
music, children, families and religious values. Music is a huge part of my
family life that started with my grandfather playing the trumpet and
stretches to my one year old who just can't go a day without playing my
husband's drums.