I Just Want to Sing in the Choir

Tonight will be the last practice before the Community Chorus Christmas concert next Sunday.  All morning long I have been singing the refrain from The Holly and the Ivy, one of the songs we will be singing.
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'Sweet singing in the choir', the chorus repeats, and I repeat those words in my head over and over and over again.  Sweet singing, sweet singing, sweet singing in the choir.  It takes me back to a day years ago at our little church in Jockey Hollow, New Jersey, where the worship was so sweet that at times you wanted it to go on forever.  It was one of those Sunday mornings, and as I sang along with the congregation I was struck by the thought that singing God's praises was what I was created to do. 

I have an adequate voice.  Not the best, but I can read music and can tell if something is off pitch.  I also love to make a joyful noise, so I have been blessed to sing in a few choirs during my life.  Choral music, is in fact my favorite genre next to opera.  I love the emotion that a choir can invoke with both beauty and power.  I love listening to John Rutter. I love the harmonies. I love singing in the choir. I love the blending of voices.  I love trying to make my voice indistinct from the next.  I love being part of something that is greater than the individual parts.

So, on that Sunday morning as I sang along with everyone else, blending my voice in a hymn of praise, I realized there was nothing more my heart longed for than to sing in the heavenly choir.  I don't care where I am in heaven I thought, I don't care if I am the last in line to make it in the door.  I don't care if I have earned any crowns.  We're just going to cast them down anyway.   When I get there, I want to see Jesus, then I want to join in the singing.  Can you imagine what that will be like, joining with hundreds of thousands of voices singing God's praises.  We will probably sing every hymn, chorus, psalm, that has ever been written in every language that has ever existed.  We will sing all of the psalms of David and the other writers in the Old testament.  We might even sing Christian rock songs, although some of them could not be called praise or worship songs.  We will sing.  A lot of people will probably be milling around, some will be looking for their loved ones, some will be looking for the house that was prepared for them, some will be looking for the saints and martyrs of the faith.  We've got eternity to explore, we've got eternity to reflect in the light of God's love.  But, as I've told my husband, if you want to find me, go looking for the choir.  I may be in the very back, my voice may be outshined by all the others, but I'll be singing in the choir.