Thankful for MUSIC...

So very thankful God gave us MUSIC!  For my entire life I think music has been an important part of who I am.  As a child, we listened to music while we cleaned house on Saturday mornings and we sang in the car on road trips.  I can remember laying on the floor in front of my "jam box" waiting for great songs to come on the radio so I could press record and forever have them in my cassette collection.  When my great-grandmother would visit she would always request that my siblings and I sing for her.  I love to sing, I love to dance, I love MUSIC!  If you spend much time in my house, you will hear music of all kinds from rap to country, from blues to bluegrass, hymns to contemporary Christian.
There are songs throughout my life that have had special meaning and I will cherish for very specific reasons.  The most recent has been "10,000" Reasons by Matt Redman.  In June, Caleb, the kids and I took a trip to California with my parents.  At the end of our trip, we attended my Dad's graduation ceremony from King's University.  That Sunday morning before graduation, we worshipped with the church that supported the university.  We sang that song a couple of different times during the service and I loved it.  I'm not sure if I had heard it before that, but I really loved the lyrics.  I was standing next to my Dad singing.  I had done this many times throughout my life, but this day I particularly remember thanking God for that moment to worship along side my Dad on such a special day.  If you knew him, you knew when he sang he worshipped from deep within his soul.  He held nothing back.
That night, at the graduation ceremony, we were blessed by the time of worship in the ceremony.  They set aside a special time to worship and praise the God that got them through the schooling they had completed and the God they had studied so intensely.  We sang "10,000 Reasons" again led by the same worship leader from that morning.  And again, it was good, this time worshipping next to my Mom.  Such joy that evening and pride in what my Dad had accomplished!  We had 10,000 reasons for our souls to sing...
I loved that song, and when I heard it on the radio the next week, it took me back to that time in California with Mom and Dad.  But 8 days from that graduation night, my Dad's earthly strength failed.  The end drew near for him and his time came.  I guarantee that Dad's soul sang the praises of his King unending, and will sing for 10,000 years and then forevermore!  This song has touched me like no other.  When I hear it, I have confidence my Dad is singing forevermore, I cry because his time came to soon for me, and I belt out from somewhere deep within because of all the 10,000 reasons my heart will find to praise Him.
God has blessed my soul over and over again.  I'm certain that weekend in California He gave me that song as a gift.  Oh, I know that song has been special to millions of other people, but that weekend, He gave it to me.  Music will always speak to me and I am so thankful for that!