All of those are favorite stories, but I was reminded recently of one I like even better. As usual, I was working on something while my two toddlers were playing, and just as usual, they were singing. Lucas, at 3, could carry a tune and had a larger range than most toddlers his age, a direct product, I think, of growing up hearing a capella music several times a week. He had been humming along and suddenly I heard, "No tears, no tears up there. Sorrow and planes, we'll all have fun."
I was still blinking my eyes in surprise when he asked, "Mommy, what are sorrow and tears? They must be bad guys, right? Because they don't get to go to Heaven." That little guy could teach us all a lesson or two.
First, he didn't just sing—he thought about what he was singing. Maybe he didn't get the words right, but he got what he understood. He knew he was singing about Heaven so "We'll all have fun," made perfect sense to him. And evidently, he had enjoyed that plane ride he had been on a couple of months earlier, so planes in Heaven made sense too.
Second, when there was something he didn't understand, like "sorrow" and "tears," he figured something out about them with just a little logic. They won't be in Heaven so they must be bad, and when you are a three year old boy who loves Superman, "bad" means "bad guys." Then he asked someone else to make sure he was right.
And third, he was thinking about what he sang long after the worship had ended.
Surely, I don't have to spell out the lessons in this one. Do you know what you are singing, which is the title of this little series I have written for several years now? (You can find them all in the archives under Music.) Do you think about the songs you have sung to worship God? Do you keep on singing them, even after you leave the meetinghouse, and perhaps sing them with even more understanding?
If a three year old can, surely we can too.
Sing praises to God, sing praises: Sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: Sing ye praises with understanding (Ps 47:6-7).
Dene Ward