Songs For Sunday

Have I Told You Lately?

This morning Jamie said something in worship that started my little cogs clicking. He said "Silence cannot communicate love very well." At first I disagreed. After all, this is the same man who said, when there are no words, sometimes your presence is enough. But, as I have been pondering his words, I find the truth in them. What if I am silent around my family, if I never say the words "I love you." Is that enough for them to know my feelings? Don't we each yearn to hear those words, to have that validation from others?

As I have said before, I am the youngest of five sisters, flanked by two brothers. Many times growing up I really disliked having so many brothers and sisters. The pestering, teasing, making fun of, and sharing, always sharing.

When I was young I was not always fond of all my sisters and my brothers. I loved them because they were family, and I had to, my parents said so. But, we would never dream of telling each other something as sappy as that - oooooh that would have been gross, and worse than the Brady Bunch! And, at times it certainly did not feel like we loved each other.

I really cannot explain what happened between the time I was a kid to a few years ago. All of a sudden, I am the most schmaltzy dork. I am sentimental and sappy, I can tear up at the drop of a hat - heaven forbid I get to church without a tissue! And yet, at times I still hesitate to tell those I love, that I love them.

I love my family. My long-suffering husband, Phil, my daugher, Alex and Phil's son Jimmy. I say long-suffering to poke some fun at Phil, because of a "joke" he said the other day, but he is long-suffering. Long-suffering, not in the way he teased, but because I know that I am not always easy to live with. I do not always act in a loving manner, and I don't always tell him that I love him, even though it is true.

I am blessed to have different circles of numerous friends. These days of internet and cell phones with free long distance calling it is easier than ever to keep in touch with people, even over great distances. This year too is a big reunion year for my high school class. Therefore, many of us are reconnecting via Facebook.

So much family, such abundant friends, so many different reasons to love!

This morning Jamie said "Talk about your love for one another. Tell each other of your love."

I don't know why it is difficult to voice our love to the people we love. Or should I just say me? I don't know why it is difficult for me to voice my love. Not always, but sometimes it really is. It is kind of embarrassing. Maybe because it is hard to open myself up to possible rejection or perhaps it just feels unnatural.

Such are the thoughts I am contemplating this rainy afternoon. Fair warning - if I get up the nerve I may even begin to act on Jamie's admonition.

Have I Told You Lately?
lyrics: Van Morrison

Have I told you lately that I love you?
Have I told you there's no one else above you?
Fill my heart with gladness,
Take away all my sadness,
Ease my troubles that's what you do.

Stamp of Rejection

Do you know what it feels like to be rejected? To feel second best, unwanted, unappreciated? I would hazard to say that each of us have experienced those self-deflating feelings once or twice in our lives.

Remember the story of Leah and Rachel? Jacob worked for Laban seven years in order to marry the beautiful Rachel. However, he pulled a fasat one on Jacob and gave his daughter Leah. Genesis 29:25 states:

When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn't I? Why have you deceived me?”

It was customary for the oldest daughter to marry first. But Leah had “weak eyes.” Laban obviously thought he could not marry her off. Not to mention, he was receiving some pretty cheap labor from Jacob, so he tricked him. When Jacob promised to work another seven years for Rachel, Laban gave her to Jacob the next week.

A little further in verse 30 it says “Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah.” Poor Leah! How tough that must have been for her, never measuring up to the beautiful Rachel.

The story goes on:

“When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.”

Each time Leah gave birth she thought, “Surely my husband will love me now.” Or “Now at last my husband will be attached to me because I have borne him three sons.”

But what happened? Even bringing forth sons did not make Jacob love Leah. Oh, I can imagine how she felt, never measuring up, never being good enough, or pretty enough or anything enough. I am sure Leah was certain that she could earn Jacob’s love by bearing sons, but it didn’t work. I imagine Leah trying to be a better cook, a better housekeeper; trying and trying to best Rachel at everything - to no avail.

Do you ever feel like this? Do you ever think, if you change, if you do everything better, if you bend over backward, everyone will love you? If you have, you know it does not work.

So what did Leah do? She had another son, but this time she did not kid herself that this would be the son who would bring Jacob to her. She said “This time I will praise the Lord.”

I read an article this week by Timothy J. Keller at www.PrechingToday.com about Leah, The Girl Nobody Wanted. Here are a couple of things he has to say about her.

"Leah became the seed—Leah the outsider, the Leah the ugly, Leah the rejected. Because she grabbed hold with faith, she got her life back from all the people that had ruined it for her. She got it back. And God comes down and makes her into the seed. She goes ahead of her husband. She understands the gospel better than her husband. And at the very end God says, Now through your suffering, because you have come to understand the gospel of grace, you are the seed and your son Judah is the seed, and you become the mother of Jesus.”

How could this be? How could this possibly be? Why would God choose Leah to do that? And the answer is right here.

"When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved he came to her." And now we know.

The Old Testament shows us what the New Testament really, really tells us. God loves those who others don't love. God is attracted to the weak because of his gracious nature and he wants the ones that no one else wants.

Though we may look like Leah, to Jesus Christ we look like Rachel. That's the gospel. We might look like Leah in ourselves, but to Jesus Christ we look gorgeous. And that is exactly what God does here.”

Sisters, doesn't this just give you goosebumps?

I have been there, I have been a Leah. I have had all those feelings of rejections. I know how it feels. And, sometimes when things seem bleak, I am right there again, feeling weak and unwanted. But Praise the Lord! My Lord cherishes me and He sees me “lovely in form and beautiful” like Rachel.

The next time you feel self-doubt, or rejected remember the story of Leah and know that you are loved and treasured.

Songs For Sunday

There's An Old And Faded Picture

I am the youngest of five sisters, sandwiched between two brothers. When I was very young, my mother put the girls in singing lessons, so we've been singing together practically my whole life.

Funny, even though it is Mother's Day, the song that has been on my mind all week is one taught to us by my dad. We have known this song so long, I do not remember actually learning it. It is just part of our heritage. I never heard this song anywhere else, but when I Googled "There's An Old And Faded Picture," I discovered that it is an old mountain song. Surprisingly, I found that we had only learned the first verse and half the chorus.

Nevertheless, I am partial to the part we grew up with. When my dad and my Uncle Glenn were kids, supposedly they were kicked off the school bus for singing this song over and over. My dad would laugh and laugh when he told us that story. I still smile when I think of him regaling us with tales of him and his younger brother as little hellions.

I am guessing this was a popular song at one time. Or, at least on the farm where my dad grew up. It was a big hit at family reunions when my dad would drag out all his girls to perform. Then, as we grew older we would visit my Papa at the Nursing Home and it was always one we made sure to sing for him.

I picture us five girls, very young, probably twelve and under, singing this song, beginning in unison and breaking into three-part harmony. Also, in my humble opinion, it is best to imagine it sung in the worst possible country twang.

There's An Old And Faded Picture On The Wall

There's and old and faded picture on the wall,

Tis been hangin' there for many, many years,

Tis a picture of my mother,

And I know there is no other,

That can take the place of mother on the wall.

On the wall, on the wall,

There's an old and faded picture on the wall.

My mom did not teach me this song, and I do not have an old and faded picture of her on my wall. But, she has taught me innumerable lessons of faith, family and perserverance, in word and by example. And, I know there is no other that can take the place of my mother in my heart.

Blessings this Mother's Day!

Songs For Sunday

Morning Has Broken

In the cool of the morning air I sit on the back steps. The spectral filminess of mist still hovers over the ground. My body fights an internal battle between the chill of my back steps, still damp with dew, seeping through my robe and the warmth of my coffee cup in my hands.

I breathe deeply of the moist air, heavy with the scent of fresh farm smells that waft from the field adjacent to our back yard.

The horizon takes on a pinkish glow. Within minutes the sky resembles a glorious watercolor, run amok with shades of pink, blue, violet and yellow.

A movement catches my attention and I turn my eyes away from the heavens to see a small bluebird flit about the yard. Soon another joins in. A pair of cardinals begin an intricate dance of flirting as they circle, dip and dive.

My attention is drawn away from the disco of my backyard by the honking of geese. I look above and see a string of geese calling "Good morning."

I sigh and look down. The coffee is finished, but my cup overflows as I begin the day.

Morning Has Broken
Lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day.