You Will Sing

By |Published On: June 13, 2018|Categories: 4-Minute Radio Program|

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a beautiful story.

When I relax my heart gravitates to this beautiful old hymn. I don’t think you will know the words. It is pretty unfamiliar, but I think you will love the melody.

My song is love unknown,
My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake,
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

Isn’t that beautiful? It reminds me of a lovely story I heard years ago. Someone wrote of sitting one winter evening by an open wood fire and listening to the singing of the green logs as the fire crackled and danced. All manner of sounds came out of the wood as it burned, and the writer, with poetic imagination, suggested that the sounds were imprisoned songs that had long slept in silence inside the wood; that is, until now, when they had been released by the fire.

When the tree stood in the forest, birds came and sat on its limbs and branches, singing. The wind also breathed through the branches making a lonely, strange music. Another time a child sat on the moss by the trunk of the tree, singing a happy tune. At one point, a penitent thief set under the shade of the tree and with trembling tones, sang his confession. And all of these different musical notes sank into the tree as it stood there, each song hiding away deep beneath the bark. There, the songs slept until the tree was cut down. And part of that tree became the backlogs in the cheerful evening fire. It was only then that the songs were released. How so? It was the heat of the flames that brought out the beautiful music.

Now, that’s a fanciful story, it’s all make-believe. But I think this little tale is a wonderful parable. Because life has various notes and tones, doesn’t it; some are happy, and some are choked in tears. Years sometimes pass, and life gives out no music; there are no songs to bless others. But then, maybe a deep grief comes; a season of terrible pain and disappointment. And in the heat of those flames, the long-imprisoned music is set free, and the wounded soul sings its praise to God. It sings songs that bless others. Many tones and notes are stored away in the summer of the heart. But in the winter hours of fiery trials, the heart sings songs late into the night. Songs released by the fire.

The book of Isaiah is a prophetic book that gives words of hope to wounded, broken hearts. Isaiah was written during a long season of winter when God’s people were led away into captivity. But during that long time of hot, fiery trials the prophet Isaiah in Chapter 30 writes three simple words, “You will sing.” And it’s why I just sang that obscure hymn a moment ago – it’s a beautiful hymn I once found in the midst of a very hard season of trials in my life.

So friend, no matter what trial you are facing, God has a song for you to sing. Sing your way through suffering, would you? Whether it’s a hymn or scripture song or maybe it’s a song that’s been long hidden away, like the one I just shared. Whichever, may the fire of your trial release your song in your night of trial. So, sing your way through suffering.

Music: “My Song is Love Unknown” by Samuel Crossman; St. John (Calkin), John Baptiste Clakin; Public Domain.

© Joni and Friends

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