Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. (Psalm 95:1-2 NKJV)
On Friday, October 31, I did something for the last time: I conducted my final song for the Chorale at our homeschool co-op. My children have graduated or moved on to other classes, so our family is no longer part of the group. For ten of the sixteen years our family was involved in the co-op, I had the privilege of leading the Chorale—a group ranging from 6 to 20 students each semester, blending singers from 8- and 9-year-olds all the way through high school. Managing such a wide mix of ages and voices was certainly a challenge, but it was also a joy, and we had a lot of fun learning a variety of songs over the years.
My final song on Friday was a simple, unison arrangement of Mary M. Coulson’s poem “Prayer for Today.” I first heard this song in the mid-1980s at a week-long fine arts church camp that profoundly marked my life. Several decades—and several choirs—later, the words still resonate with our world:
God in heaven, I make my prayer for all the people everywhere
Who live in fear or pain or doubt; Whose homes are gone, and hopes run out.
God in heaven, I make my prayer for all the children everywhere
Who live in terrible, warring places; Who live with hunger and strange sad faces.
God in heaven, I make my prayer for all good people everywhere
Who live in comfort, love and peace; And pray sincerely for strife to cease;
But who do not always hear the call of those who live with nothing at all.
God in heaven, hear my prayer! Help all people everywhere
To come closer together in plenty and need,
And to make our world your home, indeed.*
As a choir director, I always tried to select songs that could take root in the spirits of these young singers, just as this song has been rooted in mine since I was fifteen. I don’t recall the names of the husband-and-wife team who led the choir at that camp, but I do remember the name of the camp director. All these years later, I wish I could thank her—thank her for planting seeds in my heart that eventually led me to a lifelong vocation in worship ministries. Her name is too common to search for, and who knows where she is now after all these decades—but I know God knows. I pray that God somehow helps her and other choir directors realize how profoundly they have shaped young lives in those holy and profound week.
As my life moves into a new chapter, I pray that I will continue to invest in young lives, planting seeds of God’s truth just as were planted in me all those years ago. And may the songs we sing always please the God we love.
God,
Thank you for the beautiful and amazing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs you give us to sing to you in praise, thanksgiving, and worship. Thank you for the gifted songwriters through the ages who have given us your Word and your Truth in musical form. Thank you for choir directors, teachers, and other artists who hold and impart your creativity in this world, and for the many young lives who are impacted by their ministry. Today we pray that you will continue to give us profound songs to sing, even as we invest in young hearts and lives that are coming up. May the message of Christ dwell in us richly as we sing with gratitude to our God. AMEN.
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. (Colossians 3:16 NIV)
*by Mary M. Coulson in “Prayer for Today;” music by Margaret Tucker,