I’m gonna lay down my burdens
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside.
I’m gonna lay down my burdens
Down by the riverside
To study war no more.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of our family died of injuries he received in Iraq. I did not know Tim Hines personally, but my parents and younger siblings remember him. He was my mother’s library aide, and my father remembers clowning with his mom on the sidelines as Tim and my brother played basketball. My younger sister is just a year older than Tim’s young widow.
At times like this, I am deeply comforted by the spiritual “Down By the Riverside.” When I was a little girl, I loved to hear this song at church. This was because my father, a deacon, would sing this song with my Uncle Chuck, and the whole church would join in.
Standing in front of the altar in their dark deacon suits, Dad and Uncle Chuck would trade verses and ad-lib around one another with such ease and joy that I really did think they were blood brothers:
I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside.
Gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
To study war no more.
As much as I enjoyed this spiritual, I don’t believe I understood it until I became an adult, facing the world on my own in college and afterward as a twentysomething. During these years, I’ve come to see that all of us are studying war somehow. Whether it’s nursing a broken heart, searching for answers to long-offered prayers, figuring out how to make ends meet or watching as the world around us becomes more and more confusing, we all study war.
We are all looking for ways to make our way through intact, hoping our scars will heal and wanting to believe that there is a purpose behind our existence—and that we’ll see more than a hint of it here, on this side of the river.
My hope is that all of us, whatever our feelings about war, can come together around this great belief: That one day, all of us will lay our burdens down, once and for all. Let us gather around each other, offering sweet comfort and the assurance that one day, we will study war no more.
Well, I’m gonna put on my long white robe
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside.
Gonna put on my long white robe
Down by the riverside
To study war no more.
Rest peacefully, Tim.
To make a donation to Tim’s family and for his unborn son, due in August, please do so in care of the Timothy Hines Memorial Fund c/o any Fifth-Third Bank or to Impact a Hero. Condolences may be sent by visiting www.avancefuneralhome.com.
Read more about Tim here.
Image credit: www.fairfield-echo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment