Vacation Song

O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

I first sung this song to my children on vacation this past summer. Hence their name for it and the title of this post. Elijah will sometimes refer to it as The Thunder song. When you are four, everything is cooler if it explodes. They ask for it at bedtime, when I am empty from having poured myself out all day. I am either A) slightly annoyed with my big kids or B) extremely annoyed with them and what I really want to do is flee. Close their drapes, offer the perfunctory kisses, and sit on the couch with my glass of wine and stare at the wall for 30 minutes. But how can I deny them one round of "How great thou art"?! I start singing, the words thin as they leave my mouth, but by the time I get to the chorus, I have had the chance to see my son's face watch me. He sleeps on the top bunk and we are eyeball to eyeball as he follows my lips and face as I sing this song to him. His mouth will move in unison with mine, with no sound produced. It is the most convicting moment of my day. We get to the chorus, which HAS to be belted out with gusto, and I finish the song somehow more grateful then when I started.

This is a song that has worn a smooth path in my memory and will probably never be forgotten. There is something sacred about songs sung in unison. They can lay dormant from a childhood at church but somehow bloom with the slightest encouragement. I hope that my children will think of me when they hear this song. And maybe forget how annoyed and cranky I was.