Healing Me Softly...

Just yesterday I wrote about it, and tonight, what I wrote about came true. The evening has started out rough: my son wanted nothing to do with me - he wanted Mommy. However, Mommy had promised our daughter she would stay with her for the children's program at church. Our daughter was pretty sweet with me, and I thought maybe she would be cool with my staying with her and "Mommy" leaving with our son. I found out that was most definitely NOT the case. So we had to make the choice of which child was going to melt down. I had to physically remove my son from the situation, as he cried as though I had beaten him.

Eventually I outlasted his mood and helped him recover from the meltdown. Then we played a bit, and got him ready for bed. He read me a story, using different voices for each character. He even sang some of the dialogue. Then Mommy and Sissy got home, and we found out he had homework - and he immediately went back into meltdown mode. Eventually, I helped him get through it and sent him back to bed just a few minutes after I was supposed to be at rehearsal. By now, I had a raging headache to go with the heartburn I've had all day and the other digestive problems I've had for two days.

In this condition, I left my home and drove to the rehearsal site, only about a mile away. I walked up to the stage feeling tired, stressed, a bit sick, and achy. I listened to the other singers and found my part, sometimes with just a little help from my friends. As we sang together, the harmony did its healing work in my heart, as well as in my head. Perhaps it's more accurate to say the Spirit behind the songs worked in my heart and in my head. This combination of people: a fifty-something male guitarist, a twenty-something female singer mainly singing harmony, a college-age female lead singer, and me, an almost-fifty keyboard player and harmony singer, became the harmony St. Paul wrote about as he encouraged contentious groups of people to "live in harmony with one another."

Now, these folks are friends of mine. I would choose to be with them even if we were not singing. But the act of listening to each other and blending our parts to create something beautiful helped me experience just a touch, just a taste of heaven. The hymn writer called it "a fortaste of glory divine." I don't mind bearing whatever burdens come my way, as long as I also get to regularly experience God's healing grace. For me, harmony of the voice helps to bring harmony of the heart, and that, my friends, is a wonderful channel of grace.

Until tomorrow,

Michael


©2008 J. Michael Bryan. All rights reserved.