Saturday, April 25, 2015

2014/04/26 - Recognize that Love Song

Back when Jerry and his wife Brenda were first dating, he was a helpless romantic.  I remember on his four-month anniversary, he got up an hour early so he would have time to drive to her house and put a card under on her windshield.  He didn’t even sign it… it just said… Happy Anniversary!  I’m dedicating a song to you.  Listen to WIKY at 9 o’clock.

That’s all it said.  He didn't even sign it...
Well- she could guess who it was from – I mean- they both were head-over-heels in-love with each other.  He was all she could think about – and She was on his mind every moment of the day.  She tried to imagine what song he was going to dedicate to her.  It was so exciting!  Brenda got to work blushing, and the rest of the ladies knew SOMETHING was up… so she told them that ‘Jerry’ was dedicating a song to her at 9 o’clock.  Well – ALL the ladies were excited then.  It’s always nice to see someone else in love…  it reminds them of when THEIR husbands had gone out of their way to do special things for them.  Sigh… if only it could be that way… but instead, they all lived vicariously through watching this young couple in-love.
9 o’clock rolled around – and there wasn’t much work getting done in the place.  Anybody who wasn’t waiting on a customer had their ear to the radio listening for that special song.
Just after nine, they played ‘You can go your own way’ – by Fleetwood Mac.  Brenda started to worry… was that it?  Was that his way of telling her to get lost!?  The more she thought about it, the more teary-eyed she got.   The other ladies tried to reassure her… but even they had to wonder.  After a couple of commercials, the next song was Thriller by Michael Jackson.  Was THAT my song?  She didn’t even LIKE Michael Jackson… maybe the message was that their relationship was ‘thrilling’?  Or maybe it was a scary nightmare like it shows in the video.
Finally at 9:25, a voice came on the microphone – sorta shaky – you could tell he was nervous.  He didn’t say anything – but just started singing,…she recognized the voice – and the song immediately…it was ‘their’ song, which uniquely expressed THEIR Love for each other…and she hung on every word.  Jerry wasn’t a bad singer, but not exactly good either… but to her it was the most beautiful song she’d ever heard.  She quickly became a blubbering puddle on the floor…  J 
Don’t we ALL wish we had someone who loves us like that?  Makes us feel special…Goes out of their way just to make US happy….Makes a public spectacle of themselves just for OUR sake?
Surely you know… we all do have someone like that.  He goes out of His way every moment of every day to provide for us.  He tries to let us know that we ARE special – and He does everything He can to make give us JOY.  In the end, he made a public spectacle of himself just for OUR sake.
But do we know him?  It says in the Gospel – “I know mine and mine know me”.  Do we really know him?  How do we recognize him? 
The answer to that question came on Public Television last Sunday.   Did anybody happen to see the show called “Earth: the New Wild”?  I think the Holy Spirit led Mary to turn on that channel that night because the story we heard fits right into our theme today.   They were talking about the Samburu tribe in Africa.  They live in a very dry area, but they never completely run out of water.  In the dry season, they go to these sand pits and they start digging with their buckets – shoveling the sand out for hours until they are like 10 feet deep.  They’ve learned that there is bedrock below the surface where the water will pool.  Next they build a trough at the top of their hole and scoop one bucket of muddy water at a time into that trough for their livestock to drink.
Now –that’s amazing in itself that they even know how to find the water… but picture this… there are dozens of men in this sand pit…each digging their own hole…for their OWN livestock.  Next – the cattle show up.. hundreds of them… and they all go to the right watering hole.  How do you think they know which watering trough is THEIRS?  Because each shepherd sings his own song – it’s amazing to hear – all of these songs being sung at one time – it’s a noisy mess… but the cattle RECOGNIZE THE SONG OF THEIR SHEPHERD and walk right past all of the other troughs to get to THEIR shepherd.  To our ears, the songs aren’t that different, but the cows know.
Jesus says – I am the good shepherd.  I know my sheep and they know me!
How do you and I recognize the voice of Jesus?  I mean – there are dozens of songs being sung all around us every moment of every day…. Songs of lust… songs of cheating and greed… songs of vengeance… songs of bigotry…. Songs of temptation… songs of hatred.  Satan has many voices to entice us away from our shepherd.  How do we KNOW when we hear JESUS’ voice?  Just like Jerry singing to Brenda – she knew his voice when she heard the Love song. 
Anytime we think we’re being led into hatred or jealousy or religious bigotry… stop…recognize… it’s not Jesus singing.  In EVERY situation of our lives, the voice of Jesus may be drowned out by the world, but if we pray to Jesus to hear HIS voice… we’ll recognize HIS song from the others, because He ALWAYS sings of Love.
And he invites us to make a public spectacle of ourselves and sing along with him…
Jesus love me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.  Little ones to him belong, I am weak but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus Love me.  Yes, Jesus Love me.  Yes, Jesus Love me… the Bible tells me so.

 

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