Further Clothed Upon

I wrote this a couple of years ago.

There are moments that are frozen in the mind.

Moments joyous in the happening and heart breaking in their brevity at the same time, and if one could live there forever you would do it in a heartbeat.

For me many of those moments have happened since I was married 10 years ago, and contain the hugs of our children, their laughter and a good night kiss.

My seven-year-old daughter provided such a moment recently.

She has her own bedclothes, but many times she likes to sleep in her mother’s gowns or her big brother’s old tee shirts because they are loose and comfortable on her. I had just gotten her out of the shower and while she stood by wrapped in her towel I was going through fresh laundry trying to find something that she would like to wear. It was one of those times when she wanted to wear none of the clothes I suggested.

Finally, I lifted from the basket a shirt of mine that would drape over her and reach to her feet. I asked if she would like to wear that?

She took my shirt into her hands, buried her face into it, and inhaled deeply.

“Yes”, she said thoughtfully and in a soft voice. “It smells like you”.

At such moments I am speechless. Teary eyes and a gentle hug are the only response I have before such obvious and innocent love from this child who has my heart, and always will.

How I long for the scent of my God. How I love knowing the presence of my Father; to feel the safety and comfort of being wrapped in Him.

How I desire to be further clothed upon.

“I will never leave you, nor forsake you” He said.
Can we be secure in God?

Yes.

The mighty ONE ACCORD played this past weekend at Gospelfest in Charlestown Indiana. Overall it was a good time, even though we were the only band that wasn't Southern Gospel. That's OK - the folks who invited us knew who we were when the invitation was given. It was outside and the weather was perfect! We ministered Jesus! That is what we do. We were invited to another church by someone who was in the audience, and even heard a new label for our style of music as the person who was the emcee for the event spoke to those in attendance after we finished playing - "aggressive contemporary" :)
It's Jesus music, and there are folks blessed by it -that's all I know! I am still floating on the wonderful and worshipful concert we did a couple of weeks ago! Thank God for His Presence and Love! What a great night!

While I enjoy the outdoor events with other bands -whatever the musical style - I am getting to the point where I prefer the dates where we use our own equipment. The shared sound systems are nice time wise, but the sound often isn't quite the same. Nonetheless, as God grants opportunity we are glad to take it.

I also thought I would share a couple of interesting links this evening. The first is strictly for fun and is called miserable melodies -Real songs by real people, some more famous than others, done really bad. My personal favorites so far are William Shatner doing "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", and Burt Ward (yes, Robin from the old Batman series) singing something called "Boy Wonder I Love You". It's not so much that I like making fun as it is that I like to laugh. For me these fall under the category of "what were they thinking?!?!"
It's ok to have sense of humor in Grace Harbor.

The second link is more serious. It is called PostSecret and is both thought provoking, and often sad, all at once. It is a blog where people anomonysly share never before revealed secrets. Some are silly, some even disgusting, but then some are just heartbreaking in their vulnerability. Be warned - PostSecret is not a Christian site, and there is some language that may offend. It is, however, astoundingly honest. Some things revealed will make you want to weep.

It has been a bit quiet around the Harbor lately. The other residents must be hanging out at the fish place down by the wharf. Can't blame them -it is hard to resist good fried fish on breezy evenings in Grace Harbor!

I have always heard music in colors. I don't say it often because I figure it probably makes no sense, but it's true. Some songs are blue, some are red. I've always liked the blue ones best, and actually a lot of the songs that I have written are a nice shade of blue. Red has it's place, and is often good depending on the mood, but it's hard to beat a good blue!

See what I mean? As you're shaking your head remember I said it probably didn't make sense.

Tonight as I was running through channels on tv I stopped on an old Journey video. It was Steve Perry singing "Open Arms". My 10 year old daughter said "I know him. You play that CD in the car sometimes. When I was little and would hear his voice I would see a blue tree."

That's my girl!