I was raised on music like some people were raised on a farm or on vegetarian diets. I cannot think of a time or an occasion that music has not been prominent in my life. Granted, the type of music was monitored, but nonetheless I learned to appreciate The Carpenters and Captain and Tennille very early in life. My grandfather was forever serenading us with organ music from his living room that we would beg him to play after dinner on Saturday nights, to which I learned the lyrics of “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue.”
Music is more than words or a sound to me. It is a language that allows me to uncover what is deepest in my heart.
Since I was young, I have enjoyed singing hymns with my mother’s side of the family during holiday gatherings after a great meal, harmonizing with my mother and sisters while doing dishes, playing air guitar/drums in the backseat of our family car with my sisters and parents playing their respective “instruments” while singing at the top of our lungs, and I definitely participated school and church choirs and madrigal groups. Although I enjoyed all of these things very much, I have found that as I age and walk with the Lord through life and all that it brings my way, I am touched most by my personal worship time daily in many of the same places I mentioned above. I have no real specific place that I worship… anywhere works for me.
I have always loved the song, “My Jesus, I Love Thee.” I took poetic license a few years ago removing the “thees” and “thous” and made it more personal by singing, “My Jesus, I love you. I know you are mine. For you all the follies of sin I resign. My precious Redeemer. My Savior, you are. If ever I loved you, my Jesus, it’s now.” It then sings how I would speak and it resonates within my heart to hear my voice speaking what lies deep within my spirit. I am sure we all have a favorite hymn from our youth and many of you may have done much of the same by personalizing it or taking out archaic verbiage.
It was a few years ago, when my mother’s mother passed away, that I again felt a deeper connection to praise and worship corporately and personally. I was on the praise team that next Sunday and knew that according to scripture there is continual praising and worshiping when in the presence of the Father. I envisioned my grandmother praising the same God, same Savior, same Lord of our lives — only with her in the presence of the One I still longed to see. I knew that we may not sing in the same pew again, but we would engage in worshiping each day the rest of my life at some point through music. It is a lingering gift for me to be able to experience this and realize that we were still doing something worthwhile together. It is something that I am always grateful to remember and know that I have ancestry awaiting me where the celebration of the King of Kings will be eternal and full of music!