Lately, God has been teaching me the flimsiness of mere circumstances to stand in the way of His purposes. Often, I am tempted to look at a situation and declare, “That’s impossible!” But the voice of truth would respond with, “Yeah, but God doesn’t know that.”
On Christmas Eve at church I had the opportunity to share one of the songs I had recently written. The song is titled “The Greatest Gift” and is a simple attempt to share my response to the gift of Jesus Christ and His purpose on earth. I actually had a different song picked out for that morning but was unexpectedly inspired, you might say, to write and sing this other song instead. Most people don’t know this, but I get really nervous before I sing. Oh, I’m fine once I actually start the song. But the moments leading up to that are somewhere between mind-freezing terror and immobilizing panic. I end up praying a lot right before I sing. Simple things like, “Dear God, please don’t let me trip on the stairs or any cords.” (Did that once; am okay with never doing it again) And more profound things like, “Dear God, use the words of this song to reach into peoples’ hearts and teach them something new and fascinating about You.” That morning was no exception.
Although I never anticipated the results.
I have something of an over-active imagination. Things like a stranger on the street seeing the ducks in my car dashboard and being so filled with joy that he hands me a hundred dollars. Or a bar of chocolate. Or a famous trainer driving down the road in his pickup truck and seeing me riding my horse and pulling over to offer me a spot in the Olympic Games. I admit, my imagination goes a bit over the top sometimes. But even my creativity was not prepared for what God did.
Later that day at the evening service, a man I had never met before walked up to me, introduced himself, and said he had enjoyed the song I sang that morning. He then went on to explain that his son had been killed in a skiing accident while on a trip with the youth group earlier that year. At his son’s funeral and ever since then, music became a tool the Father used to reach into this man’s heart and touch him with God’s love. The man then asked if he could please have a copy of the song I had sung that morning. I replied that I’d love to give him a copy, only it wasn’t anywhere but on paper. He then asked how much it would cost to have it recorded...and said he was willing to pay for the entire project.
I don’t remember a word he said the rest of the conversation. My mind was very frantically trying to come up with a solution to the impossible words I had just heard. Surely he couldn’t have meant, couldn’t have said...well, what I thought he had just said.
Today, after several more conversations and a bit of research and a few other bits and pieces that were not at all stressful or time-consuming, I am planning a trip to a recording studio in Omaha, Nebraska. To record a song called “The Greatest Gift.” It is fitting, I think, that this is possible because of a gift someone else has given me. Fitting also that the man who is giving this gift has a very near place to the heart of the Father who gave up His only Son. “There is no greater love God could have shown, to send His Son that we might be free” - from a song written by the grace of God even before I knew any of this was possible. Yes, I think it’s very fitting indeed.
