And I can tell you that God loves all kinds of music. He has sung Death Cab for Cutie and Bob Marley with as much love and intention as pieces by Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra. He has comforted me with Just The Way You Are by Billy Joel. He has encouraged me to move forward with Beautiful Day by U2. You see, music is His thing. Now I'm sure there are those skeptical types reading this with a narrowing eye. God singing? To us? Are you kidding? All I can say to those of you cut from that cloth is, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that you are not open enough and trusting enough to know that God would sing to you too - IS singing to you -- if you'd just listen.
I've had truly miraculous experiences of God speaking to me through music in my lifetime. Sometimes there have even been others present to witness the 'coincidence.' A few times I've even had someone share their own 'God singing' stories with me. Which brings me to why I'm posting this tonight. I've had a night of absolute bliss. An outpouring of God's love that can only be described as grace. There is no way to really describe it except to say it feels something like endless warm oil being poured over your body, while your heart feels so enveloped by love that you honestly think you might die from the joy...and you don't even care..it feels that good. I don't know why I have been so blessed to experience this. I certainly don't deserve it. But it continues, even now, though it is fading. And in the midst of it, I asked Him, if He could, to please pass this experience on to my children instead. Please let Nastia and Anya and Daniel have this experience of Love. And in that moment, the experience intensified so much that I thought I might leave my body.
There is no possible way for me to share the experience with you, as much as I yearn to. Please just know that there is a God who is so unspeakably powerful, so endlessly forgiving, and so infinitely loving, that He chooses to speak to us, sing to us, and even climb into our hearts and live in us. He loves us more than we can possibly understand with human reason.
So, let God sing to you.
Listen for His song.
Ask. Seek. Knock. The door is open.
"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
ReplyDeleteZephaniah 3:17
i often think Clayton is communicating with me through my radio. a string of songs will come on that are "our songs" and it makes me laugh. I've always felt that. I like your philosophy though that it is God speaking to us through song, and especially like your examples. very lovely.
ReplyDeleteMy dad's name was James McLoughlin. The night he died back in 1988, I was leaving my mother's house to drive home. Lost in my thoughts and sadness, as I got on the highway I turned on my radio and out came "Jimmy Mac, Jimmy, oh Jimmy Mac when are you comin' back". All these years later, that song makes me think of him and smile.
ReplyDeleteYes!!!! God sings to me too--although it has not happened for a while (my house is noisy enough without music, so I tend to only put on quiet instrumentals, unless I am cleaning, or sometimes in the car).
ReplyDeleteBut you know how else He has often spoken to me? In rainbows. Several times over the course of many years, and in several states, I was in the car praying (and crying) and turned a bend and BOOM there was a rainbow, a beautiful personal message from God to me, affirming that He hears and cares, and has promised to never forsake us.
God is just so creative--all of creation is His mouthpiece!