Sometimes it’s hard to start the day with a song; a dream seems just out of reach, feelings are hurt, we sorely miss someone who isn’t here, bodies grow fatigued, a harsh word clouds a sunny day. There’s something, though, about lifting up our heads and looking at a new day with hope that puts a song in the heart. And, if the song isn’t in our hearts, it can be in our mouths! We can fake being cheerful and then, before long, we begin to feel happier.
Several times in the Old Testament, God commands the children of Israel to sing. He told the commander of the Israelite army to put the singers out in front. I can imagine when the battle was going against God’s people and the enemy looked mean and forbidding, the last thing they felt like doing was singing.
Perhaps, when their song began, their voices were weak and hesitant, but, they obeyed. I believe that as they sang, their courage rose. The music grew louder and stronger. When the Israelite soldiers heard their people singing, they felt cheered. The singing had the opposite effect on the enemy army. What was wrong with those crazy people? Didn’t they know they were about to be defeated? Well, no, they didn’t know and they weren’t.
Yesterday, a loud thump told me something had happened on the deck. When I looked, there lay a robin, prone on the boards. When I went back later to check on him, he was gone. Happily, the sudden encounter with my deck door hadn’t killed him, but it probably gave him an awful headache. Was he one of the birds I heard singing this morning? I imagine he was. The pain forgotten, he sang to greet the start of a new day which, hopefully, held no close encounters with unyielding glass doors. He may have momentarily lost the tune, but it was there, within, and his voice was a cheerful note for the morning.
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