Well, we haven't had a party for I. yet. Around our house everything has to go through a sort of baptism of procrastination in order to be done properly, including birthdays. Last week my two oldest girls went to spend a week with friends and now oldest boy has gone to camp. I am looking forward to the cool quiet autumn days when we can all be settled under one roof and be quiet and relatively routine for a while.

I know Deputy Headmistress @ The Common Room posts a hymn on Sundays, but since I try to keep the computer off on Sundays I've never done it. I always thought it was pretty appropriate though, and since we sang one of my very favorites last Sunday, I thought I'd share it. I tried to find the tune on the net somewhere, but even the CyberHymnal doesn't have it. The tinny computer music couldn't have done it justice though, because it is a sort of hymn that part of it is sung in a certain "round like" way with each voice part coming in at different times. (Which has a technical name, which S. knows but I can't remember right now and she is downstairs reading. Maybe I'll ask her later.)

Oh Let My Name Engraven Stand

Oh let my name engraven stand
Both on thy heart and on thy hand
Seal Me upon thine arm and wear
That pledge of love forever there

Stronger than death thy love is known
Which floods of wrath could never drown
And hell and earth in vain combine
To quench a fire so much Divine

Come my beloved haste away
Cut short the hours of thy delay
Fly like a youthful hart or row
Over the hills where spices grow

I especially like the second verse. The idea that floods of wrath could never drown God's love for His saints. Even when I am feeling like I really do deserve His wrath still His love is bigger and stronger than His wrath. I won't be drowned or lost in a flood of wrath because His care of me is even greater than His own wrath. And the idea of a divine fire. God's fire burns away all our smucky icky self stuff. All that at the end of the day I feel like crying "Woe is me! For I am undone!" about. But He is never surprised or shocked or thrown off track by what I do like an earthly lover may be. It isn't like someone who you might think, "Well, they like me now, but if they knew how I really was.." He just consistently works away until He is pleased with the results. How glad I am of that! My parents gave up on me when I was about 15, but God never did! I could blow them over by my strong will and leave them shaking their heads. I always won. But not with God. Then when He has cleansed all that dross I can be like the young deer and run to meet Him with no guilt on my conscience because He has said He has forgiven and it is done.

S. says that is a fuging hymn. There you are. Don't you love it when your kids are smarter than you?