The Comfort of His Mother and Grandmother
We sang the beautiful hymn, “The Old Rugged Cross,” at church on Sunday. Our church continues to enjoy visiting ministers while we patiently wait for Ray to be up to preaching again. The song took Sunday’s minister back to his childhood.
It takes me back to my childhood, too. Mama Sue and Daddy Leland (Daddy’s parents) sat on the second or third pew from the back at the church across the street from our house, and we sat in front of them. Nearby were my Aunt Dot, Uncle Preston, and their children. The hymn reminds me of my mother singing “The Old Rugged Cross” in those beautiful, honey-stained wooden pews.
The minister said that “The Old Rugged Cross” is the first song he remembers. His grandmother sang it to him when he was three or four years old while she held him in a rocking chair. That rocking chair is now in his basement. Sometimes he goes downstairs and sits in the creaky, old chair and remembers her.
He sang to his own children at bedtime and always included “The Old Rugged Cross.”
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
Refrain:
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.
O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left his glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.
In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
To that old rugged cross I will ever be true,
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then he’ll call me some day to my home far away,
where his glory forever I’ll share.
Our church sang those words often. How precious those words are to me—such comfort, what sweet memories.
I found this image of a 1920 record with a recording of “The Old Rugged Cross.” You can listen to it here.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, National Jukebox.
The minister also reminisced about the times when tornado warnings came on the family’s black and white television. Their home had no good place to go in a storm, so his mother sat with him and his brother on the couch. With her arms around them both, she sang “God Will Take Care of You.”
Be not dismayed whate’er betide,
God will take care of you;
Beneath his wings of love abide,
God will take care of you.
Refrain:
God will take care of you,
through ev’ry day, o’er all the way;
He will take care of you,
God will take care of you.
Through days of toil when heart doth fail,
God will take care of you;
When dangers fierce your path assail,
God will take care of you.
No matter what may be the test,
God will take care of you;
Lean, weary one, upon his breast,
God will take care of you.
Below is an image of a 1924 record with a recording of this hymn. You can listen to it here.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, National Jukebox.
Many years after those couch cuddle times, the minister’s father passed away. One month later, his mother passed away, too. At her funeral, her sons included the song, “God Will Take Care of You.” Remembering his parents on Sunday, he said that when he was growing up, he depended on his father to take care of practical concerns, but when he needed comfort, he went to his mother.
What priceless opportunities you have every day to comfort your children.
But we proved to be gentle among you,
as a nursing mother tenderly cares
for her own children.
1 Thessalonians 2:7