Thursday, October 25, 2012

Can you hear the Father’s Song?


Can you hear the Father’s Song?

This morning I was remembering some very wise counsel Jim and I received as we prepared for marriage nearly 40 years ago.  Jim was advised to be the initiator of love, because women typically respond to the love they receive.  That was especially helpful for me, a child of divorce who rarely felt love from my own father and watched my dad leave my mom and our family after 17 years of marriage.  More than once Jimmy would stop what he was doing when he saw the insecurity rising up in me.  Holding me firmly by the shoulders, he would look into my eyes and say, “I am not your father.  I will always love you.  I will never leave you.”

While praying this morning for our nation and the upcoming elections I realized that as blessed as I am to be loved this way by such a wonderful man, I am more blessed to be loved with abandon by an amazing Father.  Still sometimes I forget who I am and let the worries of finances and tragedies bring me back to that place of insecurity.  Then I need the Father to speak his words over me, just like Jimmy used to do:  “I am not like your father.  I will always love you.  I will never leave you.”

I think the people of our nation need to hear those words, too, even the ones that don’t yet know the Father’s love.  The cry of my heart from the time I was a little girl was just to be loved.  I used to long for the strong arms of a daddy to be wrapped around me and take the fears away.  I didn’t know that the Father’s arms would be the ones to do that for me, How transformed would people be if they could hear the Father singing over them?

I love the words of musician and composer, Matt Redman’s song, “The Father’s Song”.  How would it be if people across our nation heard the Father’s song, knew that he had sent for them, called them by name to be his own, had died so that he could wrap them in his arms and take away their fears?  How would we live, how would we love, how would our values change, how would we vote, if we heard Daddy’s voice singing with love over each of us?  Praying today for the nation, for the people to hear that song.

The Father’s Song (by Matt Redman)

I have heard so many songs
Listened to a thousand tongues
But there is one
That sounds above them all

The Father’s song
The Father’s love
You sung it over me and for eternity
It’s written on my heart 

CHORUS:
Heaven’s perfect melody
The Creator’s symphony
You are singing over me
The Father’s song
Heaven’s perfect mystery
The king of love has sent for me
And now you’re singing over me
The Father’s song 

I have heard so many songs
Listened to a thousand tongues
But there is one
That sounds above them all