Oh, I miss singing. I miss singing with lots of other voices around me. I’m fortunate enough to be able to sing at home and in the car with my daughter (singing in the car is one of our favorite things), but there is nothing like congregational singing. As I was singing in the car the other day, I remembered a beautiful song by John Bell entitled “I will sing a song of love.”
What came to me about this song were the words from verse 1: “And I will not sing alone, but with earth and sky and sea for creation raised its voice well in advance of me.” While we might feel alone in our singing right now out of necessity and safety, our voices are never truly alone. We are joined to all creation, to those we know and love, those who are strangers across the globe, and those who have gone before us. The cloud of witnesses ensures that our voices remain connected to something greater than ourselves. Verse 5 reads, “While my life on earth still runs, may my song to God be given, till through grace I join the harmony of all in heaven.” I love that image, “the harmony of all in heaven.” I wonder how it will sound? What do you imagine?
As we do the best we can right now, using our voices to keep singing a song of love even when we can’t hear the harmony of others, may we remember that even when we feel alone, through the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, we are never truly alone. We are connected through the love of God that is broader, deeper, and longer than we can imagine in this life. Thanks be to God.
Chorus: I will sing a song of love to the one who first loved me, and I’ll sing it as a child of God, who is named and known and free. For the love of God is good, it is broad and deep and long; and above all else that matters God is worthy of my song.
In Peace, Pastor Ruth
Community Prayer:
Let us pray. Creator God, it is you who have made us, and not we ourselves. We are dust without your breath of life. We are creatures, not creator; yet you entrust the care of creation to us. Breathe your spirit into us that we might be faithful in the tasks you set before us; through Jesus, the Christ who always goes before us. Amen.