Good News!

"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness:

come before his presence with singing." Psalm 100

"Good News"! Yes, that's the title of the musical our youth choir performed in or around 1969. But also, if you look up the word "gospel" you find that it means just that....Good News!

My "Good News" for today is that I had a reunion with some of my fellow youth choir members this past weekend. It was wonderful. Some of them I had not seen at all since around 1973.

We gathered from far and near! From Louisiana, Alabama, and the south end of Mississippi all of us felt the magnetic pull to the hub where we spent so much of our time as teenagers. Where we practiced.... and practiced....and practiced some more!....until our choir director Bob was satisfied that we were all doing our best. He exacted the best from us because he was the best himself ! I had the privilege of telling him on Saturday that he had set the standard for all the music that would be in my adult life. And Bob if you're reading this.....you set the standard way up high! Thank you!

During a Wednesday night Thanksgiving service a few years ago at my now home church, our pastor asked that each person attending stand and say just one thing they were thankful for. There was the usual "home, family, church, health, etc"........all things that I truly am thankful for......but as I stood the word that came out of my mouth was MUSIC! Several times since then an older man at my church has remarked how that touched him and how he had never really thought about how thankful we should be for music and all that it adds to our services before then. I LOVE music. It touches my spirit when nothing else can.

What precious memories we re-discovered last Saturday as we talked, looked at old pictures and took a tour of the remodeled church where we sang as teenagers. So many things I had forgotten about. So many things different. But yet so many things still the same. We found that we still all love music and are all still involved in the music programs in our various churches. It didn't seem possible that so many years had passed since we had seen one another. Our lives may have taken different turns during the years since our Youth Choir days but our roots are still the same. We still have our eyes set on the prize that awaits us when we step over into eternity. Many of us have parents, spouses or children waiting for us there. I just can't help but think we'll all be singing together again someday in heaven. And when that happens we'll need no practice! We will have perfect harmony as we "come before his presence with singing"!

May God give you a song in your heart today!

Marilyn