Always Singing...

While reading Psalm 84 today in the context of a prayer for a particular family & reason (long story), I read a verse that just popped right out at me. I immediately thought of my Father. Psalm 84:4 says: "What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises." NLT

Any of you that remember my Dad and Mother, probably remember that they sang together (most often with whatever of their girls were available at the time) for many, many Church Services, Camp Meetings, Revivals, etc. I can still see my Dad, his head stretched upward, singing praises to the Lord. In the early days, he always played the accordion while we sang. As soon as I was able to play the piano well enough, we USUALLY used a piano. However, the accordion was never put very far away.

My sister, Jodi, was telling me one day, that in the last few months before he passed away, he would put his accordion on and sing a solo at his Church. The song he sang was almost always "Beside the Crystal Sea" - which is the song us four girls sang at his funeral. She said, "Gail, he'd stand up there singing that song with his accordion, while tears coursed down his cheeks.

I guess there are two reasons this verse made me think of him today.

1) For years, as us girls sang with Mom and Dad, he struggled if he ever sang for 3-4 nights in a row, because he voice would get so hoarse. He would mix concoctions of honey and lemon juice and drink and drink and drink it, but still, the more he sang, the worse the hoarseness got. By the time he got to the end of a 10-day Camp Meeting or Revival, he could hardly sing at all.

2) The last two years of his life, he was on oxygen 24/7. Jodi would often tell me how he would get up at his Church with his accordion and sing a solo. Then, because he was so "oxygen deprived", he would be "done in" for the rest of the day.

I can see him in my mind's eye, in those last few months of his life, singing about going to & living in Heaven. He longed to be there so badly. So, today, after reading Psalm 84:4 I am ASSURED that he will be able to sing continually throughout eternity...without ever getting hoarse, and with LOTS of air to breathe~~!

Sing on, dear Daddy. Someday we will all sing as a family again with you and Mama and we will BE "beside" the Crystal Sea.

P.S. I have found out the name of the song I mentioned is actually another name:
Land of Living.

There's a place of dazzling beauty
No human eye has ever seen;
With gates of pearl and streets paved with gold.
It's a land of milk and honey,
Oh, it's more than just a dream;
It's a land of life beyond the crystal sea.

Cho. And it's a land of life - where living is forever;
Where the sting of death will claim no victory.
And we are nothing more than just a passing shadow,
'Til we reach the land of living beyond the crystal sea.

The sun is nothing but a legend
In this paradise of dreams.
The Lamb will be the only light we'll need.
It's soothing walls of jasper, built by God's own hand;
It's a land of life beyond the crystal sea.