The Most Beautiful Song
The song may not have been perfectly on pitch, nor were the singers necessarily in tune, but it was the most beautiful song I have ever heard. The Nicaraguan teenagers love to sing for their church, no matter how they sound. Tonight, the Nicaraguan youth group generously invited me and the other interns to join them for thier singing practice. They wanted us to teach them some songs in English, and we wanted them to us some songs in spanish. As we sat in a circle in a dimly lit room at the back of the church with chipped walls and no air conditioning, we sang from the bottom of our hearts. It did not matter how well we could harmonize, nor did anyone care if your tone quality was bad. We just sang to each other from our hearts. The choruses and melodies drifted from the back room into the streets of the market outside the door. The Nicaraguans sang to us with accented english, "I love you with the love of the Lord." In response, we sang it back to them in thier own language, "Te amo en el amor de Dios." In my mind, I recorded that moment, and I will play it over and over again.
The universal unity of the church is something that is hard to grasp until you actually see it taking place. The church reaches way past American cities and into the heart of third world countries, jungles, and deserts. It transcends language and culture by uniting hearts with a common thread: the amazing love of our Lord. For just an instant, while singing off-pitch in a humid room in a poor Nicaraguan church, I caught a glimpse of how big, yet small the church really is. We may be dispersed and distant from one another, but we are unified in the name of Christ. Just think about that - your church is not the place where you meet on Sundays. Your church is the body of believers who call Jesus thier Lord, and you can find millions of them all over the world. Somewhere, some of your brothers and sisters are probably meeting...right now! What is the most amazing of all is that our one God speaks all their languages, knows all their names, hears all their songs, and can meet all their needs.
I do not think I will ever sing that song - "I love you with the love of the Lord" - in the same way again. That song will always remind me of the most beautiful song, the song that the universal church sings from every corner of the globe. We sing in harmony and in unity, declaring that there is One God whom we adore and follow.
The universal unity of the church is something that is hard to grasp until you actually see it taking place. The church reaches way past American cities and into the heart of third world countries, jungles, and deserts. It transcends language and culture by uniting hearts with a common thread: the amazing love of our Lord. For just an instant, while singing off-pitch in a humid room in a poor Nicaraguan church, I caught a glimpse of how big, yet small the church really is. We may be dispersed and distant from one another, but we are unified in the name of Christ. Just think about that - your church is not the place where you meet on Sundays. Your church is the body of believers who call Jesus thier Lord, and you can find millions of them all over the world. Somewhere, some of your brothers and sisters are probably meeting...right now! What is the most amazing of all is that our one God speaks all their languages, knows all their names, hears all their songs, and can meet all their needs.
I do not think I will ever sing that song - "I love you with the love of the Lord" - in the same way again. That song will always remind me of the most beautiful song, the song that the universal church sings from every corner of the globe. We sing in harmony and in unity, declaring that there is One God whom we adore and follow.
I remember having some of the same moments in the Guatemalan church and STILL can picture them 12 years later. I wish I could give everyone that feeling of being with a people who unashamedly worship the Lord together. Capture every moment and the things you receive from those moments and they will come back to you years down the road. Just a few mornings ago I walked outside my house here and got hit with it...the temperature, humidity and smell of the air (someone was burning something) WAS a Guatemalan morning and my eyes teared with all God taught me there...12 years ago!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Staci, for the encouragement. I will treasure and store away all the sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of this place! When I get back, I would LOVE to hear some of your stories so that I can learn from what God taught you in Guatemala.
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