Beautiful Saviour

I remember that as even a young child, Beautiful Saviour, was my favourite hymn. There is something about the hymn that fills me with joy and peace and I was always happy when it was one of our Sunday Service hymns.

About 30 years ago while chatting with my Mom as we did dishes, she told me that when she died, she wanted Beautiful Saviour sung at her funeral. Suddenly I couldn’t sing Beautiful Saviour without breading into tears thinking of it as Mom’s future funeral song. Fortunately over the years Beautiful Saviour wasn’t sung as often in the Sunday Services so I was ok. That is until May 2020 when my Dad passed away of congestive heart failure. It was during Covid so the number of people allowed to attend funeral services was limited to 15 and that included the Pastor, organist, and funeral home staff. It meant that the grand children from out of province couldn’t fly in and those that were married couldn’t bring their spouses or children. Fortunately we could live stream so that extended family could attend virtually.

I prepared and practiced the eulogy and felt I could do this and then 10 minutes before the service was supposed to start the pastor came to the family and said that the congregation couldn’t sing together and that Beautiful Saviour was too special to just be played on the organ. It needed to be sung. The 10 of us in the room looked at each other and by process of elimination I was the one selected that was to sing. I hadn’t sung Beautiful Saviour in years and now I was supposed to sing it for the funeral service for my Dad without practice or mental preparation! I was so nervous and I know I prayed continuously until it was time to sing. I prayed that I could sing this beautiful hymn in praise to God and also in honour of  my Dad who was such a faithful servant. By God’s grace I was able so sing without falling apart.

In the past several years since then, Beautiful Saviour has been one of the Sunday Service hymns sung not only in my church but in some other churches that I have visited and I can now sing it with strength and joy and peace because Jesus is my Beautiful Saviour.

My Mom passed away this May and I sang Beautiful Saviour to her at her bedside in her last days and we sang it at her funeral service. It is a song of praise to God and also in remembrance and honour for another of His faithful servants.

Karen Hildebrandt, VP Communication, LWMLC, Inc.