Dear Reader:

Every time I look out over the mountains each morning…I half expect to see Julie Andrews appearing at the top of the knoll… singing as loudly as I remember it the first time I saw the Sound of Music at the movies as a child.

“The hills are alive…with the sound of music…”

What is it about the connection between mountains and music? There is definitely a special bond…most music camps during the summer find niches among the mountains to host musical festivals…somehow it just seems right.

I love this lesson in singing and bonding with God’s other creatures in this devotional by Quinn Caldwell.

“Sing”

“…with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” – Colossians 3:12-17

There are about 5,400 animal species that make complex, intentional, repeatable, musical vocalizations.  That is, there are about 5,400 species that sing.  The majority live in the trees, a few live in the oceans, a very few live underground, but there is one—only one—singing species that lives on the ground: us.

Another thing: humans are the only singing species with a precise and shared sense of rhythm, which is what allows us to sing together.  Two birds might sing the same song, but they cannot sing it together.

Another thing: if a roomful of people sings at the same time, they start to breathe at the same time as well.  Some studies suggest that if the drumbeat or bass line is strong enough, their hearts will begin to beat together, too.  And if we’re singing together and breathing together and our hearts are beating together, then it’s like we’re one body.  And you know Whose body it is.

Another thing: all the other species stop singing when danger approaches.  But humans sing louder the closer the danger gets. We sing together, and we become large, and we do not back down.

So come racism, and “We Shall Overcome” you.

Come fear, for “It is Well With My Soul.”

Come war, for tonight is your “Silent Night.”

Come death, for “Jesus Christ is Risen Today.”

Come, all ye faithful, and sing.

Prayer

Lord, I can’t read music and I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.  But I’m-a sing your praises anyway.  Amen.

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Kaitlyn has such a beautiful voice…maybe I can convince her to belt out a song for me backdropped by the mountains….a moment for the memories. Time will tell.

So until tomorrow….

“There is no complete spiritual life without music, for the human soul has regions which can be illuminated only by music. “

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh