Arise and sing like no one’s listening

“My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.””

‭‭Song of Songs‬ ‭2:10-13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It is a little known fact that birds don’t have a larynx like us humans, but have an organ called a syrinx that allows them to sing. Our lungs allow us to use about 2% of our breath to make noise, but birds can use nearly all of it, and can even make two totally unrelated sounds at once. They are quite literally built to sing, coo, trill and chirrup. And this is their time to do what they were built for.

Birds survive the winter but they thrive at spring, putting out early music for the soul. After months of pause, suddenly things start to move so quickly, and the birds usher it all in.

In many respects our nation as a whole, and many of the lives and industries of our country have been put on hold, basic tasks taking so much longer, families and education out under so much strain, but there are signs of life... children back at school, the hope of meeting in small groups and a potential of summer.

I am convinced, having spent time in conversation with church and network leaders up and down the country, that many churches and ministries have changed forever during the course of this last year. We have had a year-long winter already, but if this is the case then as the birds start to sing again, we should pay even closer attention to two things.

Firstly, as Jesus taught us to ‘consider the birds’ he made the point that each of us is more preciously loved by our Heavenly Father than any of them (Matthew 6:26) - as much of our human contact and affection has been reduced over these difficult months, we should be encouraged to reach out for God and we will find him.

Secondly, in the Song of Songs, the spring song is attended by the words of ‘the lover’ - a picture of Jesus Christ who calls out to his beloved (the church) and says ‘come’. It is time to listen and move out, time to follow and be attentive; and I venture to believe that the new journeys will be very different from the old. We are not looking back, we are called to follow the Lord into an uncharted future.

Thirdly, one of the revelations of this last year has been the outdoors. We have defined our relationships with God, with church and even work, far to closely with buildings, even to an extent which cannot really be supported by scripture. We will have to use this summer to reconnect and restore our relationships with God and especially with others. I went for a walk today with Amy on a very track where in May 1996 we followed one another on mountain bikes on the day we got engaged. Get outside to pray, to be in love, to talk and walk with a friend.

“Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.””

And lastly - join the birds and try singing!!

As Mark Twain said: “Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like it’s heaven on earth.”