Isn’t it wonderful how the Lord brings encouragement to our troubled hearts in ordinary ways at key moments in our lives? It’s almost as if He had direct access to our thoughts and emotions and knew how best to cheer us. But of course, He does! And as our loving heavenly Father, He will speak to us through indirect, but not less divine everyday means. It might be a sight that reminds us of Bible promise. It might be a friend who says just the right thing at the right moment. It might be a passage in a devotional book that touches our soul in a most reassuring way. Perhaps when we have been processing a troubling recent medical diagnosis that suddenly a thought pops into our mind that reminds us that we are not alone, but that the Good Shepherd is there, even in the valley of the shadow of death.
Or it might be when we are singing something – perhaps a hymn – that surprises us with something about the Lord that brings Him back into focus in our attention, when we had gotten too busy to remember Him, or too absorbed in some challenge to remember that we need to be looking not at the waves in the storm, but rather at the Savior who walks on the waves, and calls us to come to Himself. Since God is the one who designed music and also designed our mental and emotional capacity for responding to music, it should come as no surprise to us to remember that music can touch our souls in especially powerful ways.