“The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory;
He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love
He will exult over you with loud singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17
God sings. Who knew? I never did, until I read Zephaniah 3:17. Who would have ever thought that the God of the universe, the One who spoke all things into being, would sing “over” me? What a thought!
And what might that song be? I wonder. Perhaps it varies according to need…my need. Or maybe that is too selfish a thought. What song could be better than any song that God might sing?
Some days I feel as though I hear God’s song…a beautiful, quiet melody that calms my soul and assures me of God’s presence. Some days I hide in the noise of my day, daring the song to reach me. And yet, God continues to sing.
Some days I sing back to God. There is joy in my heart that can best be expressed with music. So I sit at the piano and I sing to God. Or I join my church choir in a song of worship. Or I sing a song for a dying patient, who joins in the song, and, I’m sure, God does too. Those are the days when I really “hear” God’s song.
Some days the world seems too noisy and cruel to hear God’s song, much less to sing it, and I feel like the children of Israel who lamented, “How can we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4).
Recently I visited *Joe, a patient in end-stage dementia. He is always pleasant to me when I visit – always allows me to pray for him. But when he speaks to me, sometimes he cries, and when I ask him why, he says, “Because my dad is cold and I can’t help him.” I ask Joe where his dad is and he points toward the ceiling at the end of his bed and says, “he’s just over there.” His dad is not present and in fact has probably been dead for many years. Joe often sees and talks to non-present family members in his room. I try to reassure Joe that his dad will be okay and he seems comforted for the moment.
I decide to try something else during my next visit. We greet one another and I ask Joe if he’d like to play a game. His eyes light up and he smiles and says, “Why, yes I would.”
I tell him, “I’m going to sing you a song. If you know the song, I want you to sing it with me, okay?”
“Okay.”
I start rather quietly, “You are my sunshine”…and immediately Joe joins in the song, “my only sunshine”… We sing two more songs together. For a little while, my friend hears God’s song as it reaches through the recesses of brain disease, and provides comfort and peace, if only for a little while.
Sometimes God’s song comes directly from God and sometimes God sends the song through other means – someone else’s voice, the sound of a waterfall, a baby’s cry, a beautiful instrument or choir or even, or maybe especially…in the silence.
May God give us ears to hear the song, whenever and wherever God chooses to sing, and may we never be too busy to stop and listen.
Kim W. Chafee
11-17-13
*A true story, although the patient’s name has been changed to protect issues of privacy.
