Another Rescue!

My "dumpster diving" goes back years. Long ago I discovered some real treasures that were discards to most everyone else. My bookshelf has many such gems, but so does my music collection.

My children grew up with a soundtrack for their lives. We once had a stereo in the living room of our small home, and popping in a CD was easy. The speakers were good, so we had the sounds of gospel songs and hymns and Psalms echoing through our home all the time. The littles would come running in their Winnie the Pooh slippers at the first sound of their favorite Gospel music CD. I can still hear their little piping voices singing, "In the SWEEET pie and pie..." (In the sweet by and by) and many others.

The Psalm CD's I have collected through the years are both metrical and Anglican chant--both different and beautiful. Will at age three came down the stairs singing, "For the LORD is high and to be feared, He is the great King above all the earth! The gods of the heathen, they are but idols..." Psalm singing! Great festival hymns, ancient sacred music, music of the Middle East, Bach, Palestrina, Schubert, so much music.

Our last child, Emily, is now 15. She recently had the chance to volunteer at a local library in preparation for their book sale. She bought a CD there and handed it over. "I saw this and thought of you, Mom," she said. A Mighty Fortress: A Legacy of Hymns. Wonderful.

She rescued another discard, snapped up for my CD library. Due to my hearing loss, I have had a hard time in recent years hearing pitch properly in recorded music. Emily dug up a CD player-clock combination with a side speaker. VOILA! I can hear music again. It sits close to my favorite chair. I am now in business! I'm planning on hearing my treasures I haven't listened to in quite a while.

I love hymns, not because they are old, but because they have cheered the hearts of Christian believers down through the centuries in a long unbroken line. I am a part of that line, and these songs and hymns, sung by so many generations, are embedded in my heart and soul. They are a comfort, a reminder of our Sovereign LORD, and by filling our home with these hymns, I hope I have helped pass them on to the next generations.