We sang ‘Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing’ at Hans’ memorial service two years ago today.

Years before that, long before Hans left us, our daughter used to play an arrangement of this hymn that I felt lent itself well to being played at some future graduation ceremony for Hans, should he want one (he didn’t). The tone of that particular arrangement was uplifting, optimistic and hopeful, yet strangely, I would feel a little sad when she played it. At the time, I attributed those feelings to the sentimental nature of a mother’s heart.

As it turned out, Hans did get his graduation ceremony after all (his memorial service) when he graduated from Earth to Heaven, from temporal to eternal, from corruptible to incorruptible.

†

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Robert Robinson (1758)

1 Come, Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing,
tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount–I’m fixed upon it–
mount of Thy redeeming love.

2 Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by Thy help I’ve come;
and I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wand’ring from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
interposed His precious blood.

3 O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wand’ring heart to Thee:
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
seal it for Thy courts above.