Worn...And Well Loved

 It seems you see fewer and fewer well-worn things, nowadays. We live in such a disposal world--it doesn't help things are no longer built to last anymore. Still, if you take care of things, they'll stick around (look at all the old VW beetles out there...). 

A few weeks ago I snapped a picture of two hymnals, one was ours (I call Old Orange...), and the other belong to the meetinghouse. Both books are spiral-bound, meaning they lay flat on a music stand, which is important if your calling is to lead music and you can't fiddle with a book that wants to close. I brought our almost worn out hymnal with the thought that if they had a better edition at the church, I'd use that one...

Turns out, mine was better.

Yes, both books had covers that were duct-taped together. The blue book actually had pages that had become separated from the binding and were just sitting inside. I ended up using Old Orange and things turned out fine.

I suppose we could order a new spiral-bound hymnal--it's what people seem to do these days. I'm sure we can justify the cost. But, there's a certain charm to keeping imperfect things, things that still offer value, that still work, that still do what they were designed to do. One day in the future we'll probably have to buy a new book and on that day, I'll be a little sad. Old Orange has been good to us...

And we'll try to be good back.

An Oldie...But A Goodie

On Sunday I found an old LDS Hymnal. It was stored in an unused section of the church. I have fond memories of these hymnals. Growing up a bored child (or parent...) could take a piece of paper and a pencil and make an imprint of the famous Mormon Tabernacle Pipe Organ. The new hymnals have the same imprint, but it's not as pronounced. 

There's also another thing that this old hymnal has that is missing in the new one. Contained inside is one of my favorite songs, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. This hymnal was replaced in 1985 so these particular editions are a little hard to find.

This particular song is one of those songs that can reach into your soul in a way few can, at least, it does for me. It's such a beautiful song and a kick to sing. Then, thanks to Mack Wilberg, it's become very popular, especially in my neck of the woods.

I haven't done a lot of research about this, but I heard that this song was not added to the 1985 hymnal because it was not well known. I'm sure that was true at the time. But the same cannot be said of the song today. Yes, we no longer use this particular edition in our Sunday worship, and sometimes I wish we would--at least, for one song and to make interesting graphite art  when I'm bored.