In junior high, I took the bus to and from school. Every afternoon, all of us kids would pour from our seats like marbles tipped out of a bag and scramble our way back up the hill to our homes.
Most days, I’d walk with my best friend Mona up into our hilly neighborhood, giggling and chattering away about our plans for the weekend, the latest drama going on at school, or maybe a project we had to work on. She lived about halfway between the bus stop and our house. After we got to her place, I’d wave her goodbye and finish the rest of the walk on my own.
This one sunny day, I happened to walk the entire way home on my own. I had had a great day, and while I missed Mona, who had to stay home sick, I was happily bouncing home with no one around me…and I was singing.
I saw a little butterfly flit and flitter around some yellow Lantana blooms…I sang about that happy creature, imagining how satisfied she must have been that God gave her nectar.
I noticed the sun sparkling through the drops of water from Mr. Carlton’s sprinklers…I sang about the cool water and the thirsty grass and how God made the roots to soak it all up.
I sang at a fresh new dandelion pushing its way optimistically through a crack in the sidewalk, eagerly reaching toward the sky and brightening the otherwise plain gray sidewalk – oh, how happy it must feel to be blooming where God planted it.
I sang with silly abandon and just kept skipping along, making up my own little life melody to match the simple things around me, blissfully released from the usual self-consciousness of my normal junior high life. Until…
I heard a voice break through my reverie. A little disoriented and a lot shocked, I looked up and saw Mr. Carlton on his way back from walking his old Basset hound. The pair lumbered toward me, and I heard him repeat what I missed in the fog of my song-filled head, “Keep on Singing! The world needs more of that!” His old-man voice creaked out the encouragement with a happy lilt, and my heart shifted from shock and embarrassment to shy delight. I’m sure I nodded a weird thank you and smiled awkwardly as we passed…but I did keep singing!
How much more to erupt in song when God does something as incredible and miraculous as delivering His people? That’s exactly what Moses and his sister and all of Israel did. They burst into song this side of the sea, together shouting the praise of our great God. This is the first song recorded in the Bible and – Wow! What a song! It’s in Exodus chapter 15…
The horses and his rider He has thrown into the sea!
Who is like You? Awesome in glorious deeds!
You have led in Your steadfast love the people whom You have redeemed!
You have guided them by Your strength to your holy home!
Exodus 15
Their chains are gone; they’ve been set free, unburdened, and hope-filled…
How could they keep from singing? They couldn’t!
Mr. Carlton was right. The world needs more of that – of song and remembrance of delight and appreciation…pointing others to the joy of being free because of God’s great, unmatched power and reckless love.
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