Loud Singing
Our God rejoices over His children with dancing and loud singing! Praise His name!
A tradition has sprung up in our family. It is unclear the exact time that this tradition arose, nor is it entirely definitive who the tradition setter was in this instance. Whatever the cause and timing, it is now a tradition in the Toal family that when celebrating a family member's birthday, the singing of the Happy Birthday song is at a volume as to approach screaming. To say we sing Happy Birthday to you is an understatement of immense proportion. We sing Happy Birthday so you can feel it deep in the marrow of your bones. We sing Happy Birthday to you so that you may experience the song for the remainder of your year until we can renew the experience again. After all, a birthday really should be all year long.
I thought that this high volume, rambunctious singing of birthday wishes was a unique and original tradition to our family. But alas, as the writer of Ecclesiastes states, "There is nothing new under the sun." (Eccl 1:9). It seems that there is One who originated singing loudly over those He loves. You can tell by my capitalization of "One" and "He" that the Creator of singing loudly is none other than God Almighty. As the prophet Zephaniah tells us, "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." (Zeph 3:17) How cool is that?!
For those believers who wish that God would be dignified and regal, you definitely won't be disappointed. I am sure God will be those and more self-possessed than we could ever imagine. But I can't wait to see the God of the Universe dance! I can't wait to see our Lord take a deep breath and bellow out, with loud singing, a joyous song over His children!
My sister likes to compare this scripture to the farmer in the beloved movie Babe. The scene involves a small, very ill pig and the farmer who owns the pig in a room of the farmer's house. Unless the pig begins to feed, it will not live. You can check out the scene here if you would like to see what the farmer does and how the pig responds.
When it is time to celebrate, I believe our God does it better than anyone! And there is a big celebration coming. At the end of time, God will welcome His children home. I bet there will be some dancing and very loud singing!