When God Sings

Yesterday, I visited a small primary school. It has just two classrooms and the other classes have to learn under trees. As a matter of fact, the teachers had also established a little staffroom under a tree. I suppose it was cooler there than in their office. Many of them are volunteers but they seemed to be very willing volunteers who were all busy marking homework. It must have been break time because all the teachers were under the staffroom tree. As we left, one teacher stood up and walked towards the tree under which his pupils played. As soon as he stood up, faced them and started walking, the children stopped playing, and started singing. I couldn't hear the words clearly but it was a song of welcome. They kept on singing till he had reached his class tree. I turned to my colleague and told him that it must be so good to be a teacher. No one sings when I walk toward the office. No one, I say, no one!

I remember we had a teacher we sang to in high school. She was hilarious and when she walked in we would say, nay, sing, "Gooood morning Mrs X (not her real name, she is not the wife of  super villain Dr. X) how are you Mrs X, you look nice Mrs X, oooh Mrs X, aaah Mrs X". Yes, we said oooh and aaah. She taught Maths and we all know there was a Maths lesson every day so indeed, we did this every day. She seemed to enjoy it as she would strut to and fro at the front of the class waiting for us to finish acknowledging her glorious presence. Then she would teach, call us (really funny) names, teach some more and go. I wonder where Mrs. X is now. 

When we were kids we would sing a song to welcome our parents when they came home. They must have been quite happy to be received thusly. Sometimes we stood in a line near the door and sung lustily as they came in. We would have played all day and then remembered to complete our chores  in the late afternoon. So they only learnt many years later that we were standing against the wall on the puddles of water that had not dried after we washed the house at 6pm. But a lot of the time we were singing genuinely and not to cover up evidence of our sins. Some of the words in the song were in a made up language. Hmm... I have never really thought about those words. I shall call a family meeting and explore our language making abilities further. We can offer sell the language to the African Union as the language of Africa seeing as Kiswahili is not moving fast enough to take up this role. Then the next time you are outside Africa and someone asks if you speak African, you can say proudly, 'As a matter of fact, I do!'. 

The Bible says that God rejoices over us with singing. I find that so interesting. God rejoicing over me with singing. I wonder what it is like and I suppose it must be like the kids singing for that teacher, or the scenes you see on TV when a candidate passes their exams with the oft quoted flying colours. Of course political leaders also have people sing to them all the time. Sycophants mainly. I'm not sure they are rejoicing but well, they sing. Actually, I am not a politician but one of the women's groups I work with thought it fit to sing a song about me. Our interpreter was listening to them as they prepared the songs and she told me that they were singing about me. I was quite surprised and rather embarrassed. Thankfully, she also told me that my name in the song was pronounced 'Jos' so when they presented the song I dutifully rose and danced and smiled really wide when they said 'Jos'. 

God sings for me too and He certainly knows my name! 

Zephaniah 3:17 says: The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. Isaiah 62:5 says For as a young man married a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. You may read the whole chapters to get the context. Isn't it beautiful to imagine God rejoicing over you with singing? Sometimes, well, a lot of the time, I am really hard on myself and I feel like I have failed God and/or myself and all. When you look at the context of these verses, you realise that God is actually rejoicing over Israel after they have disobeyed Him and been sent to exile. He is rejoicing at their repentance and just because He loves them.. It really is beautiful to think of God rejoicing over me. I just wanted to remind you that He does rejoice over you. He is pleased with you and He loves you. You make Him so happy that He breaks into song. So, pause, give yourself a break, and imagine that!