Everything Is All Right When… …We Carry a Song in Our Heart
“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the lord with gladness! Come into
his presence with singing.”
(Psalm 100:1-2)
For Valentine’s Weekend my son, Will, brought his wife, Amanda, and two of their daughters, Emogene and Joy, to Plano from Virginia to visit Sharon and me. On Saturday, we loaded into the car to travel to the Dallas Arboretum to meet up with my son, John, and his family for a relaxing afternoon. My three-year-old granddaughter, Joy, made our outing memorable.
Adjacent to the place we set up our picnic, there happened to be a small rock bridge extending over a tiny moat to a diminutive island with a single tree located in the center of that island. I followed Joy as she crossed over the moat onto the island. She then pointed toward the tree to let me know that the tree is now a castle. Then, she proceeded to break out into song (a song I recognized from the motion picture “Frozen”) and dance. The sparkle in her eyes and the smile on her face projected the pure joy that was in her heart.
Joy is not a word I would use to characterize my chemo treatment experience. However, I took a page out of Joy’s Dallas Arboretum agenda and took my iPhone to the cancer center for my chemo treatment. Like Joy, I used my imagination to transport myself to a different place than a hospital room. I imagined that I was in an enchanted forest with majestic south Arkansas pine trees and radiant fall-colored hardwood surrounding me. Then, I tapped my Spotify app and was immediately immersed into a wonderful world of music. As cancer fighting chemicals filled my body, I sang “Unchained Melody” and “Amazing Grace” while “dancing” in the enchanted forest. Joy filled my soul that day amid what is normally an anxiety-filled chemo treatment.
God’s gift of song has a way of lifting our spirits, as it did for the Psalmist, for Joy, and now for me. Therefore, maybe it is time for all of us to sing and to dance more. For in our singing and dancing, the Lord God Almighty knows that great joy can be found!
Hallelujah!
Robert