Living a Musical

I grew up loving to watch musicals. I've heard many people complain about musicals, saying they are so unrealistic because no one goes through life singing about everything. I must admit, that in our family, we live life like a musical! We sing about so many things throughout our days, making up songs and rhymes about all sorts of things including toilet-training, getting dressed, going on trips in the car, and finding lost items. I've always enjoyed music and have come to appreciate it as a good learning tool also.

For example, the thing that prompted me to write this post, was the song, "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me." I looked up the history on this song the other day just to see if it compared at all to what I got out of the song and was sharing with my children - and it definitely does not! Here is the way I see it. The song makes me think of the devil's attempts to trick us and cause us to fall into sin. In the song, he would be the fly. We speak out against him and tell him to leave us alone. Why? Because we belong to somebody! God! So, it is like we are saying, "Shoo, Devil! You leave us alone! We belong to God!" Then the next part, "I feel, I feel, I feel like the morning star..." I did a little research on Biblical commentaries about that part this morning. The most cited verse found with a reference to the morning star in the Bible is Isaiah 14:12 and many believe that it refers to Satan/Lucifer prior to being cast out of heaven. Some believe it refers to Jesus and prophesied his being sent to earth and becoming man. Some say it is just a reference to King Nebuchadnezzar. (And some commentaries were just strange and I didn't understand their discussion at all.) Anyhow, I have always thought of Jesus when singing the "Shoo Fly..." song and that we can feel our true status as adopted children of God, brothers/sisters of Christ, co-heirs of the kingdom.

Another children's song that makes us think about Jesus is "Mary Had a Little Lamb." I'm sure many of you have heard the references to the little lamb being Jesus and him not being allowed in the school, just as religion/prayer is generally not allowed in public education nowadays. "Mary loved the Lamb, you know," why? Because "the Lamb loves Mary so." Again, looking for the history of this song did not reveal that history in its creation, but we still like to remember it that way.

Other songs that I sing often include "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" (yes, year-round) and "Jesus is the Sweetest Name I Know." My daughter now sings the latter with me usually.

Another thing we like are Bible verses set to music. Some good friends introduced us to Family Worship Seeds (www.seedsfamilyworship.net) and we have memorized some verses and their scriptural location from these songs. I've also heard that "Hide 'Em In Your Heart" cds by Steve Green are good. I found yesterday (or the day before) that if you do a search for "scripture songs" you can find even more.

Finally, I believe God loves to hear his beloved sing to him, to have songs on their hearts. There are many verses in the Bible related to music, mostly in the Old Testament and primarily in Psalms. Here are some of the ones that I have found: 2 Samuel 6:5, 1 Chronicles 6:31-32, 1 Chronicles 13:8, 1 Chronicles 15:16, 1 Chronicles16:42, 1 Chronicles 1,3,6-7, 2 Chronicles 5:12-14, 2 Chronicles 7:6, 2 Chronicles 20:28, 2 Chronicles 30:21, Nehemiah 12:27, Psalm 9:2, Psalm 27:6, Psalm 33:1-3, Psalm 68:25, Psalm 69:30-31, Psalm 81:2, Psalm 98:5-6, Psalm 144:9, Psalm 147:7, Psalm 149:3, Psalm 150:3-5. There are many more, but those are just some I've written down in my notebook so far.

Many blessings on you. I pray that the Holy Spirit leads you to sing!