Katie delighting in Sebastian

Today is the second anniversary of Katie’s death after a valiant battle with leiomysosarcoma, a rare terminal cancer.In today’s earlier reposting of Kay’s reflection on her blog, www.rawgrief.com, I quoted the last line of a great hymn.

The composer, T. Tertius Noble, spent his summers in the big house at the top of the wall of Old Garden Beach in Rockport, MA, one block from my grandparents’ home.  Only later in life did I learn that this favorite hymn was composed by the man in the house above the wall at the beach.

Here are the lyrics and an organ rendition of the hymn that flooded my mind this morning, as I gave thanks for Katie and thought of Kay’s reflection.

Come, labor on.  Away with gloomy doubts and faithless fears!

No arm so weak but may do service here; By feeblest agents

may our God fulfill His righteous will.

Come, labor on. No time for rest, till grows the western sky,

Till the long shadows o’er our pathway lie,

And a glad sound comes with the setting sun,

“Well done, well done!”