Sing Through The Storms and Hard Times of Life
Can you sing through the storms and hard times of life? Like the little thrush, a foul weather friend, God can give us a song in the trials.
“
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.
The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing.
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Isaiah 55:12
Break forth into joy,
sing together,
ye waste places of Jerusalem,
For the Lord hath comforted his people.
Isaiah 52:9
“
Growing up with surround sound…
I grew up in a noisy home, and a lot of the noise was from song.
From the basement to the upstairs eaves, it was not uncommon to hear hymns and songs of praise belted out with more happiness than harmony.
Dad sang loudly at work, in the car, and even hummed in hospital rooms. (Don’t ask. That’s not today’s story.)
My older brother sang his way through practically every Albert E. Brumley song printed by Stamps Baster in the 60s.
I especially loved my mother’s low tones quietly soothing us during our childhood toothaches and bicycle accidents.
And I will never forget her enduring advice in some of my low times as a teen.
“A song in your heart,” she would say, “can keep you through any storm.”
The Bird That Sings Through the Storms
There’s a little bird that comes out during storms and sings its heart out.
He doesn’t cower in his nest, fearing the torrential gales, tucking his head under a wing.
This tiny bird comes out in howling wind and pelting rain, looks for the topmost twig of the highest tree he can find, and swaying and dipping, he pours out harmony.
There, on his precarious perch, claws clamped to a rocking branch, he rides out the storm. He sings till the fury is spent.
He sings because “the song sings” from deep within his little bird being. The part of him that God gifts to songbirds compels him to sing.
Only God gave this bird something extra.
He gave him the ability to sing in storms.
Appropriately, this bird is called the storm thrush, and is common in the rugged parts of Ireland and northern England. You can listen to a recording of his song here.
When the Song is Gone
Life is not naturally a continual celebration of joy.
Typically, our days are filled with mountains and valleys, sunshine and storms, expectations and disappointments.
It’s not easy to cling to topmost branches, pummeled by the storms of life, and happily sing in the rain.
Some days it’s all we can do to tremulously hum in the hospital room of a sick loved one.
The tearful “I’ll be happy now” of a child releasing the storm within.
The whispered heart-clasp reaching for God’s deliverance from inner pain.
When the storm rages and doubts assail,
when courage is low,
God will send comfort and we will “break forth into song.”
When the spirit suffers,
when desolation and darkness seem ready to suffocate all joy within,
then out of the tempest
come the clear, sweet notes of a song.
Sometimes the song will be hummed,
or quavered,
or whispered.
If I can take that tentative step in the blinding rain…
If my ear is attuned to the Source of the music…
from deep within my being
comes the courage to clamp my claws and sing through the storm.
