Living and dying with song
It would be my natural habit during the days of our friend Alyce Hawkinson’s decline to protest her illness and approaching death. After all, she had so much of life yet before her, so much to give to her family and church. And we mourn her loss. But visiting with her a few days before her passing, at a coffee party in her lovely home with family members, there was not a trace of whining, regret or anger. If there was any protest, her brave spirit removed every trace of it through stories, laughter and the sharing of family news. This leads me to follow the example she was giving at that coffee party, to set my tribute to her to the sound of music.
So let us call this Psalm a Song of Alyce. It is how many of us will remember her as David sings: “Remember the wonderful works that the Lord has done.” She was always full of joy and gratitude for her family and her life with husband Jim, ever blest. And the Song of Alyce, “Go My Children with my Blessing, never alone. Waking sleeping I am with you, you are my own.” (Hymn 676)
“Seek the Lord and His strength, seek his presence continually,” David sings. Alyce found her strength in faithful worship and seeking the presence of the Lord in “Word and Sacrament” while singing in the choir. And the Song of Alyce, “Holy God, we praise thy Name, Lord of all we bow before thee,” would have a descant in perfect pitch. (Hymn 19)
David, while in pain, still sings: “While I kept silence my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.” Through the many visits to the hospital and her final decision to cease further treatment, she remained strong and courageous. And Alyce’s song in muted cadences must have been a song like this: “Thy Holy Wings, Dear Savior, spread gently over me and through the long night watches I’ll rest secure in thee. Whatever may betide me be thou my hiding place and let me live and labor each day Lord by thy grace.” (Hymn 80)
So today we sing David’s song as Alyce’s song: “Remember the wonderful works that he has done” in the lives of each of us, and especially in her life.
Above all, we’ll remember those moments in our own lives when Christ came to us in countless disguises through people like Alyce. She strengthened, comforted and healed us by the power of Christ alive in her and others by the power of Christ alive in them. This gives us our own song to sing. To God be the praise!