He Sings Over You

With the beginning of a new year upon us, I have been reading many statements regarding clean slates and blank pages and new beginnings, and I have begun seeking the Lord as to my word for this year.  It isn't fully settled just yet, but I feel that it has to do with encouraging others, especially other women.  As human beings living in a fallen world, we are each of us broken.  Wounded.  We may feel rejected, betrayed, forgotten.  Unloved. Unwanted.  We build walls to keep others at a distance, and find ourselves in a prison of our own making.  We long for a safe place where we can unmask and be ourselves and be accepted and loved for who we are, but sometimes we have worn the masks for so long that we discover that we ourselves have forgotten who we truly are.

I was reading Ann Voskamp's blog, (www.aholyexperience.com), and she was telling of a tribe in Africa who, when a woman finds that she is with child, will take some of her closest women friends and go into the wilderness, and wait together until they hear the song of that child.  

"Because they know that every heart has its own unique beat… its own wild purpose. And when the women attune to the song of the coming child, they sing it out loud."

 Then they return to the village and teach the child's song to everyone else.  When the child is born, the entire tribe gathers and sings the child's song to him or her.  As the child grows and enters school, goes through the rite of passage into adulthood, and marries, she hears her song sung to her again.  

There is one other time when the villagers sing to the child.  If at any time during the child's life, she commits a crime, falls short, or loses her way, she is called into the village.  The tribe gathers around her and sings her song to her, because they "...believe that change most happens when we remember who we are - our identity - Whose we are..."

There is a song that is sung over each of us before we are born.  It is the song of the Father.  It is sung over us by the Father Himself.  It tells of who we are, masterpieces formed by Him for a unique purpose that only we can fulfill as we walk in relationship with Him.  It tells us that we are Forgiven, that we are Accepted, that we are Beloved.  In the mess and stress of this life, our song can become difficult to hear, and sometimes we find that we can no longer hear it at all...that we have forgotten the notes and the words.  It is in those times that we most need our "tribe" to circle around us and sing our song back to us; to remind us of who we are and Whose we are...

Lord, that I may be part of that tribe, to sing home the one who has lost her way...

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;

He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by his love;

He will exult over you with loud singing. ~Zephaniah 3:17