“Your love is a symphony all around me, running through me. Your love is a melody underneath me, running to me. Your love is a song”. -Switchfoot
During my final week in Guatemala, I sat on a mountain and spread my arms wide, as if I could actually stretch my hands out and grasp all of the Lord’s creation before me. As far as my eyes could see there were brush strokes of God’s creativity and glory.
Your love is a symphony all around me.
Your love is a melody underneath me.
I asked the Lord to show me how to bring His song to his children. I asked Him what the people needed to hear in order to experience Him in the way I was.
The day before we left Xenacoj there was yet another funeral, the 3rd we attended out of the 6th since we arrived. We were welcomed into the home where the wake was being held, and I was at a loss at what I was supposed to do. It was my first open casket experience. German told us it’s customary to look at the deceased’s face and pray over them and their family. Not wanting to offend anyone I walked up to her casket, looked at her face for a solid two seconds and closed my eyes to pray. This woman was a widow, one that we had not had a chance to meet, but one of our beloved widows nonetheless. Her son asked us to stay for lunch, and some of the team helped make wreaths for the procession.
When we came back a couple of hours later for the funeral, her son asked if we would do him the honor of being pallbearers the first half of the funeral procession. My first instinct was to ask, “seriously? Why would you want a bunch of whities to carry your momma’s casket?” He then told us it would be an honor to her memory to have a group of people who love widows carry her body. He said, “it would be an honor for you to take care of her”.
Your love is a symphony all around me.
Your love is a melody underneath me.
The melody of a song is the most pleasing to the ears. It’s the part of the song everyone wants to sing. It’s what gets stuck in your head for days on end.
If God’s love is truly a melody surrounding me, running through me, guiding me, then it should flow through me into the people I come in contact with. Carrying his Mom was the way I could share God’s love song, so I gladly took my place beneath the casket.
It won’t always look like we think it should. It might not always be the obvious path. However, when you’re open to the idea of being an instrument in His symphony, it’s amazing the melody He will and can create through you. The impact will resonate out into the world. That’s powerful. That’s something worth fighting for. That’s something worth hoping in. That’s something worth sharing.
This next month in Honduras will be a different journey, but still full of the Lord and full of new ways to share Him. A-squad is going to be together all month, so stay tuned for the ways God is going to explode in Talanga!
