A Simple Song for Sandy Hook

After watching, like so many of you, the various videos today about families who've lost their 6- and 7-year-old babies, and after grieving for them as they lay them to rest, my heart was heavy with sorrow and deepest sympathy. The times in my life I've experienced death have typically inspired a poem or a song to help me through the process. Music is one of the many gifts that God allows us, whether we write it, read it, or sing it, to heal.

The tune to this song is humble (2 chords) and short, like the lives of the precious children who were taken from their families so tragically. I chose these two chords because my own son, who is now 7, is learning to play the guitar. He's getting so much better day by day and is learning to strum the first three strings while holding down one finger on C and one on G7. I am learning to cherish every single minute of every correctly/incorrectly played note. He is precious. Our time is precious.

My additional inspiration came from my daughter, who today said (quite out of the blue), "If you die, Jesus will give you a new body, and you can give him a big hug!" I'd like to think that these children have new bodies and are hugging Jesus as I type.

I dedicate this poem/song to the children of Sandy Hook Elementary in Newhouse, Connecticut, who died on Friday, December, 14, 2012:

(4:4)
    C                   G7             G7          C
Today they lay your soul to rest,
And say goodbye to Heaven's best,
My sweetest child, your eyes so true, 
See now the One who fashioned you!

My sorrow's deep, I miss the sounds,
Of laughter sweet and "Twirl me 'round!"
My tears they flow like falling rain,
He hears my cry, He knows my pain.

May Jesus hug you close for me,
And keep you through eternity,
'Til I can hold you once again, 
And see your smile that knows no end.


—Ruth Fix ©2012

Special dedication to Ana Marquez-Greene, whose rendition, alongside her brother, of "Come Thou, Almighty King" will forever bless me.  She lives on because He lives.

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