The Song Remembers When

There’s a song by Trisha Yearwood from the early 90’s entitled “The Song Remembers When.”  As a kid who grew up listening to country music, I always liked that song but I really didn’t understand what it meant for a song to remember.  As the years have passed though, I have come to understand exactly what she meant.  I have always been a fairly musical girl, and music seems to find a way to speak deep into my heart.  Because of that, there are many times that just the first few chords of a song can take me back a special place in time, or to a memory forever frozen to me by the music that marked it.

Yesterday, I was visiting with a friend who shared that she had been at a family reunion over the weekend where her 92 year old, great-aunt brought her guitar and lead hymn singing.  Her story made (A) and I exchange a knowing smile, because he knew that would take me back to Beulah Land.  I was very close to my great-grandmother for the first 13 years of my life, and music was one of our special connections.  She and I would sit in at the piano and sing for hours together, even if no one else joined us.  The last Thanksgiving that she was living she was also 92, and the two of us spent the entire afternoon in at the piano.  There were all kinds of card games going on around us, the TV was on, my younger cousins were playing, some of the men were visiting… but she and I sat at the piano.  And as she played, I sang.  Her song of choice that day was “Dwelling in Beulah Land.”  After the first time through, she reached her frail hand over to mine and said “That’s pretty, let’s do it again!”  And so we did- over and over that afternoon.  After a few time some of the card players even joined in with the “Praise God!” line from the chorus, and I’m sure everyone wished we would turn the page and move on to a new song.  But little did we know that in a couple of months, she herself would be Dwelling in Beulah Land and that memory would forever be held close in my heart.  And anytime I hear that song, I remember when. 

Grandma encouraged me for the years that I took piano lessons (not keeping up with that is one of my greatest regrets in life), and I even learned to play the hymn “Trust and Obey” out of the hymnal for her.  I still remember how proud she was of me the day I came to play it for her, and anytime the piano plays the intro to that… the song remembers when.

There are many other songs that mark times or people in my life-  “Blessed Assurance” takes me to a beloved friend and mentor, Casting Crowns’ “Praise You in this Storm” takes me back to a rough patch we walked through, Meredith Andrews’s “Not for a Moment” will always mark our family’s hardest Sunday morning, and Chris Tomlin’s “I Will Rise” brings back the weekend of a friend’s funeral.  Other times, the song remembers when there was laughter or brings back whole eras of jr high girl slumber parties or high school dances, show choir favorites, and church camp campfires. 

It is no wonder there are so many verses in the Bible about praising God with music- for me at least, it is the best way to remember what He has done for me.  Each time the song remembers when… I am reminded of how He has carried me or shown his faithfulness, what He was teaching me, or whispering to my heart. 

As a new chapter begins in my life, I know it will soon be marked by a song (or a couple, actually) that will bring me back to this beginning.  And I will think about the certainty of God, even when I feel uncertain, the nearness of His friendship, even when I feel so far away from my friends, the promises of His guidance, even when I don’t know where I’m going… and the song will remember when.

“My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music….I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.” Psalm 57:7, 9-10