The Big Finish

More often than not when I’m on the telephone with Leah I can hear Payden in the background singing. Recently, Leah asked me if I heard him and if I could understand what he was singing. He was singing one of his favorite church songs but unfortunately he doesn’t quite know the lyrics. No problem however, for our adolescent troubadour, he simply makes up his own lyrics. Apparently, the lyric of the day was that God had gone to the store where He was rock-a-bying a baby. Leah is entertained but sometimes it’s a bit much. She informed me that His very favorite church song is Dennis Jernigan’s song, “Thank You, Lord!” (781 in our song books). Now, to understand why this particular song might lend itself to a you-got-to-love-the-kid moment you have to understand two things. First, that the song as you recall has a dramatic sustained note in the chorus where the men sing, “And I thank You, thank You, Lord (with “Lord” being a high sustained note).” And second, that Payden is the aficionado of the big finish… that is, he likes to belt those sustained notes with unabashed pubescent punch! He often has a giggling audience in church when the Spirit moves him to offer up one of his big finishes. Mom loves it and bears it at the same time… and Pappy chuckles at imagining the scene.

Now, there’s something I want to say about big finishes but first I want to commend us all to make up our own lyrics. You see, God singing “Rock-a-bye Baby” in the grocery store is exactly what leads the soul to big finishes. When one sees God’s presence wherever they find themselves and know that He’s involved in rocking babies as much as He’s involved in state affairs… then, we have a God as big as the one the Bible reveals! If singing is heart melodies that speak to one another then let us never forget to affirm His presence in all that we say and do. Now, if we keep this lyric alive I believe we ought to give it a Payden finish. We need to belt it out with child-like exuberance! We need to… sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song (Psalm 95:1,2)!

And Here’s the big finish… and a little child will lead them (Isaiah 11:6)! Jesus suffered the little children to come to Him to remind the disciples and you and I that the nature of the kingdom of God is more about imaginative play than it is about rules and regulations. It’s about those unafraid to belt out the big finish because they know the one who is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end… the Big Finish! Their lyrics are full of His presence and His place in their lives. So, what’s your favorite song to belt out? -DAN