Once a month, various people from our congregation descend upon an area nursing home/rehabilitation facility. We roam up and down the halls inviting the residents to join us for a period of singing. Some accept while others decline. We gather in a common area and pass out songbooks. Age and time shadow the eyes of many of the residents making it difficult for them to see the pages. Prayer opens our time together and then the singing starts. I love to watch the residents as we sing. On newer, unfamiliar songs, most sway along to the music and move their lips a little. But when we begin a familiar song from the past, they come alive. No books needed! They sing out with heads tilted back, some tapping their hands on the arm of a wheelchair, all with a pleasant, peaceful look on their faces. Something about a familiar tune seems to take them to another place and time. Are they imagining they are on hard, wooden pews in a church building from childhood? Are they picturing a scene from their youth when the family came together after supper and sang spirituals together? Are they dreaming of a future home where they will sing praises around the feet of Jesus? We may never know. But I do know that at these times, they are singing by heart!
“Send
Someone to Sing me Home”
When my eyes are cloudy and my hair
is gray
And I can’t remember the right words
to say
When time is confusing and days seem
like years
And I don’t know the meaning of my
own tears
When youth is a distant memory so
far away
And death feels closer with each
passing day
When glimpses of Heaven and glory I
see
And my heart’s prayers are silent
pleas
God, send someone to sing to me
Of Heaven and hope and of Your glory
For it will be precious songs that
spark
Sweet memories and restore my heart
Songs have a way of soothing my
fears
Bringing me to Your feet where You dry my tears.
When confusion sets in and the darkness has
come
It will be a song that leads me home.
Sing me home when life gets hard.
Sing me home when days are dark.
Sing me home when life is short.
Sing me home to Heaven’s door.
MBK5/18/2010
