March is here and the snow is finally starting to melt. Covid 19 still leads in the nightly news. The experts are now saying we could be wearing these masks up to the year 2022. That begs the question, is a smile still helpful if nobody can see it? Well I think it is at least helpful to the one who is doing the smiling. When they take your picture the photographer usually says “say cheese!”, with a mask on all I can smell is cheese. Oh well, 2022 will be here before you know it. The masks do keep you warmer in this cold weather.
Speaking of the cold weather, we have for the last 13 days been below zero, way below zero. The other morning, I woke to a bird singing outside my window. It was 20 degrees below zero, it was still dark as it was just 5:30 in the morning and this bird was singing a solo to his creator. I couldn’t quite get over the bird’s singing. It seemed to me that the bird was not only singing but singing with joy! I can understand a bird singing with the temperature around 76 degrees, as the sun arises with all its glory, but in the dark and at 20 degrees below zero, that’s just nuts. Then I was reminded of Zephaniah 3:14 “Sing oh daughter of Zion!” You have to remember when the prophet exhorts Zion to sing, Israel was in a bad way. They were about to be invaded and taken captive by their enemies and carried off to a foreign country. It is in these hard conditions that God challenges them to sing. Often times God has done the same to me. In the hardest times in my life while praying for healing, or for deliverance from some persecution, all He does is whisper to me “Sing to me, praise me.” By faith I begin softly to sing to my creator, just like the bird that cold morning. It starts off soft but begins to build, until I notice that I had not started the song, rather, I had joined in the singing, for my creator had already been singing over me with joy! Just three verses down in verse 17 of the same chapter of Zephaniah you read, “He will joy over thee with singing!” You see, in the hard times of our lives if we will just start praising Him we will not be singing a solo, but we will be doing a duet with our Savior for he has already been singing over us with joy! As our praise leader at church often says, “Don’t let the circumstances dictate your praise, but let your praise dictate your circumstances.” As the bird flew away and I could no longer hear him singing, I decided I would join in the song of praise to my creator as well. It was still cold and dark outside but it now seemed brighter and warmer where I stood.
Singing along with Jesus, Pastor Rick