Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder

This hymn was our church's hymn of the month for April. It was funny, just a month before, Elena had started listening to this song "Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder", from Jars of Clay's Redemption album. Now the tunes are very different -it took a little bit to adjust- but the words are still good!

Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder

Let us love and sing and wonder,
Let us praise the Savior’s name!
He has hushed the Law’s loud thunder,
He has quenched mount Sinai’s flame:
He has washed us with His blood,
He has brought us nigh to God.

Let us love the Lord Who bought us,
Pitied us when enemies,
Called us by His grace, and taught us,
Gave us ears, and gave us eyes:
He has washed us with His blood,
He presents our souls to God.

Let us sing, though fierce temptation
Threatens hard to bear us down!
For the Lord, our strong salvation,
Holds in view the conqu’ror’s crown:
He Who washed us with His blood,
Soon will bring us home to God.

Let us wonder, grace and justice
Join, and point to mercy’s store;
When through grace in Christ our trust is,
Justice smiles, and asks no more:
He Who washed us with His blood,
Has secured our way to God.

Let us praise, and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high;
Here they trusted Him before us,
Now their praises fill the sky:
“Thou have washed us with Your blood,
  Thou art worthy, Lamb of God!”

                             -John Newton

While I was lyric searching, I stumbled across another long but insightful looking article on this song. I find it hard for me to sit in front of the computer and just read, for a long period of time (office life is not the life for me), but what I read -in particular, the "Let Us Worship" section- was good. Tell me what you think, if you read any of it.
:)

Mountains, Painting walls, and Counting Stars

                    If that didn't sound random, I don't what does.

Amusingly enough, they're all part of a chain of events that happened within a week.

 A couple Friday's ago in May, we drove to Katy to go see -you guessed it- Andrew Peterson's concert " Counting Stars", and yes, it was excellent! The concert was filled with a host of stories and songs! After the concert, and a tornado watch, we drove to my Grandma's house in Burnet, and got there at 2:30a! I was so sleepy, I don't think I was in full control of my brain. In the morning we drove the last leg of the journey, making it to El Paso by 4:00p (El Paso time).  As we drove in, memories of past trips started coming back. Sadly, I had this streak of getting sick with fevers as a kid, so most of my memories were not too happy, just memorable.

He didn't sing the whole album, instead he sang a few here, and there, and some he sang from his new album that's coming out.

A tornado had touched down in the area, so you could hear the thunder and see the lightning out of the windows. It was a great touch to the concert!

After settling in to our quarter's at a friend's house, we went for a quick, cool, walk around the block. Despite the heat during the day, it is nice a chilly in the evening.

The Anaya Family. Mom and Dad first knew the Anaya's when they had three kids under five -my does time fly!

Back when I was a twinkle in my mother's eye, before we moved to Austin, my family had become good friends with the Anaya's, when both couples had three kids. On Sunday we had the great pleasure to go to church with them and eat lunch at their house. When we told them that we planned to stay in a hotel the rest of the week, they insisted that we stay with them. We spent a much, much more enjoyable week staying up till midnight, talking on the porch, and eating good food with friends. Even though we hadn't seen them in many years, we still talked like there was no tomorrow.

The clear skies, dry but pretty mountains, and the electric line, basically sums up El Paso. :)

After working hard on my Grandpa's house, we took a scenic drive thru the mountains and had to stop at Trans Mountain for a quick photo shoot.

So the youngest person who is afraid of heights and shaky ladders got the job to paint the top of the wall on a shaky ladder. Maybe it's just my lot in life.

Carrying out a bed frame for some willing Mexicans

We cleaned out a lot of my Grandpa's stuff in his shed and dragged it to the curb. within the hour, several (not just one or two people) stopped and picked some things up. We have this joke/saying, "Only Mexicans would do [fill in the blank]". I think this saying applies, cause only Mexicans would stop by the curb to pick something up.

Mica and I planted some flowers. We were very proud gardeners!

On our last day in El Paso we filled up on some fine Mexican food with Grandpa before kicking out of town we made a lunch-stop at "Delicious".

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you real fruit drinks.

We got a wee taste of Mexican market at this fiesta-like grocery with loud music, lots of people, and lots of food.

Mr and Mrs Anaya and, of course, Mom and Dad.

The school that my Grandma and Grandpa went to!

Right behind the tall buildings, where the majority of lights are, is Juarez

Going to Juarez as a kid, I don't remember it being so close, I was shocked at realizing how close it is!

New and sweet friend Chrissy!

The wife of a friend, of a family that we grew up with in Austin. A rather distant connection, but it didn't matter, we chatted away. 

I'm not at all partial to where I see a sunrise or sunset -off the beach, in a plane, on the mountains- I can always count on it being beautiful!

Love,

              Caro :)