From the recording Vocal Music--songs of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His Atonement, His comfort and power,and His Res
I wrote this song after seeing a picture of an ancestor of mine found while cleaning out my mother-in-law's home (my husband is also descended from this woman, Lydia Osborn Hall). I started this song with the words of the chorus, and finished it a couple years later. Truly, those we seek out, our ancestors and others, are not just faces or names on a page. They were real people, with real stories, and real descendants like us. And what's more, they still live, waiting for us to seek them out and turn our hearts to them through Jesus Christ and His plan, so that they can make covenants with and progress through Christ and His Atonement.
Download this music here https://christinemonsonmusic.com/track/4882980/not-just-a-face-not-just-a-name-piano-accomp-version for free from SacredSheetMusic.org.
Lyrics
Faces looking forward, from ages past,
Watching their branches through distant halls of time.
Beyond the veil, yet family ties bring us closer than we know,
Their eternal worth, the Spirit reminds.
Chorus:
They're not just a face, not just a name,
But eternally bound in our family chain.
With hearts turned in love, we labor to save,
So promises made…. will bring us home.
All of my family who’ve come before
Bless me and our generations to come,
Our righteous lives return their gift, and bring honor their name,
Extending their legacy on.
Chorus:
Through His Son, we can each overcome,
Then with Him, for Him, reach for the one.
Turning hearts to find, in our temples we will bind,
Till each Father’s child can unlock the gate to home.
We may all return to Him, when the fight is won,
Sealed as one fam’ly, United with the Son,
So we’ll do His work, forging links of glory and love,
That eternally grow in our home up above.
Lord, bring us home.