This is the cover of the program at Ashleigh's funeral service. I'm sorry, I don't know who the artist is who originally drew the picture, but Doug Vandegrift "adapted" it a bit for us by adding full bangs to the child's hair so that she resembled Ashleigh, and Becky Johnson did the calligraphy at the bottom. On Tuesday September 20, the anniversary of Ashleigh's funeral, I am going to post the talk that I wrote for that occasion.Redeemer of Israel is without a doubt my favorite hymn. Nearly thirty years ago it was sung as a congregational hymn at my grandma's funeral. I remember asking my mom why that particular hymn was chosen, her answer was that it was neither too glum, nor, too overly joyful for the occasion. Since then it has been sung at my grandpa's, my nephew Christopher's and Ashleigh's funerals. I affectionately and respectfully refer to it as our families funeral song.
Whenever I walk into the chapel and see that hymn #6 is posted as one of the hymns that day (as it was two days after Ashleigh's funeral), I am always happy. Rarely is there a General Conference of the church that Redeemer of Israel isn't sung during one of the sessions. Today we sang it in relief society, and Michael heard it being sung in our 'home ward' (we attend the singles ward) while he was walking down the hall. My favorite arrangement is that of Mack Wilberg, which is performed by the Tabernacle Choir and the BYU Men's Choir. On a Sunday morning when FM100 is playing the Sounds of the Sabbath and Redeemer of Israel comes on, the volume is turned up so that the whole house can hear.
This morning I had an interesting experience. I was home alone and sleeping unusually late. I woke up and looked at the clock and thought, "I should watch the choir, after all, they know what an important weekend this is in my life (silly me), maybe they are singing Redeemer of Israel today." First of all, I really don't ever make the time to watch the choir on Sunday morning, Mike did faithfully each week, but now he's in meetings every Sunday morning and so he can't. So why was my first waking thought that I should watch the choir? I turned on the TV to channel 2 (see my mistake?) it took me a couple of minutes to realize my error and I quickly turned to channel 5 where the choir and orchestra were in the middle of... Redeemer of Israel (had I gone to channel 5 in the first place, I would probably have caught the song at the very beginning).
This is not the first time I have seen the Lord's tender mercies directed to me, through music. I joked about the choir knowing what an important weekend this is to me, but... He knew, and He was letting me know that He knew. And that is something... that I know.
