God Moments

My thought begins today with the phrase “God Moments”. I think every child of God at some time has experienced situations or events in their life that they were keenly aware that God was in the situation doing something more than the eye can see. I have experienced many of these moments in my Christian journey. One “God Moment” in my life came early one Sunday morning several years ago when I received a phone call from a dear Sister in the Lord who was in the midst of a long battle with cancer. I will never forget her words that morning over the phone, “Preacher, I’m calling all of my friends today. I need prayer. I am so weak and weary, and I don’t know how much more I can take” As I prayed and wept with her I did not realize what God was doing that morning.

As I got off the phone and begin to prepare for Church, it was a beautiful Sunday morning, the Sun was shining so brightly, but all I could think about was my friend who was in such a cloud of darkness. Suddenly outside the window I was near, a tiny bird began to sing the most beautiful song so loud and so clear. I stopped and listened, and began to think about one of God’s creations singing out to the creator on this blessed Sunday morning. Then my mind went back to my dear friend, so discouraged, defeated and dejected. I said in my mind, “Where she is, the sun is not shining and the birds are not singing.” Then, all of a sudden it was one of those “God Moments” as the Spirit Of God spoke to my heart and said, “Just because the birds are not singing where you are, doesn’t mean they are not singing somewhere” Immediately the words to a new song began to flood my mind, about a place called Heaven where the birds are always singing, and thus came the song “Somewhere The Birds Are Singing”

Sometime later we recorded the song and it was receiving play on a large radio station that covered parts of several states. A dear Pastors wife who was a friend of ours from another state had been to a scheduled doctor’s visit to learn the results of some tests that had been preformed. The news was bad; it was cancer. As she was driving alone that day she had the radio on and guess what came on the radio? You got it, “Somewhere the Birds are Singing” She later told me she had to pull over she was weeping so hard because God had sent that song at such a critical moment in her life. It was a “God Moment”.

It was The sudden death of a preacher friend that brought the next “God Moment”. It was Christmas Eve and I received a call that would affect the lives of many in our congregation. My oldest deacon’s son, who was a preacher in another state, had suddenly collapsed with a brain aneurysm. He died the next day and they asked me to have part in the services. As we stood by the graveside on a gloomy winter day, hearts were devastated with many questions as to why.  As I pondered over the scripture I would read, The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart about singing a portion of the song “Somewhere the Birds Are Singing” my family proceeded to sing it, as the song filled the cold winter air. In front of the coffin sat the wife, the preacher’s son with his wife and beautiful little blond haired grandson about four years old. As I closed in prayer, I went through the tent shaking hands and comforting the family as is my custom. When I walked out the other side, all of a sudden, something so amazing happened. I heard a little voice begin singing “Somewhere the Birds Are Singing!” I looked and it was the little blond haired grandson sitting on his mother’s lap looking at his paw paw’s casket. The little boy had heard his granddad sing this song and he just sat there in that little innocent voice filling the air with the song as everyone wept. It was a “God Moment.”

The reason I am re-visiting this is because just this past week I received contact from a dear sister in another state that lost her mother to cancer almost a year ago. Her mother’s favorite song was “Somewhere the Birds Are Singing.” This dear saint was the daughter of a dear man of God. She told me that as her mother made the crossing, they were playing our family singing “Somewhere The Birds Are Singing” in the room. Fast forward a few months…. the daughter works in a field that goes into the homes of the sick and dying. She was in the home this week of a dear lady who was nearing the crossing. She began to tell this precious lady about the song that had comforted her mother so and proceeded to pull it up on youtube so she could hear it. She received such a blessing. She began to talk about the fact that she was saved and ready to go, but what was causing her worry was the uncertainty about her daughter’s salvation. The daughter was her caregiver, and overheard this in the other room. She immediately fell under conviction and came in and fell on her knees at her mother’s bedside, calling on the Lord to save her! That was a “God Moment.” Later that day, as the mother was nearing death, this same daughter went into the other room, trying to pull the song “Somewhere the Birds Are Singing” up on the computer so her mother could hear it. As the song played, she walked back into her mother’s room to find she had slipped away to Heaven. It Was a “God Moment.”

Saturday, I received a call from a Preacher who is nearing ninety years old, Dr. Gene Winfrey. He called to ask me to repeat the story for him about how I wrote the song “Somewhere the Birds Are Singing” as he was preparing to preach a message on Heaven and was going to use this story as his launching point for the message. As I relayed this story the old man of God, he began to cry and shout on the other end of the line and I was crying as well. It was a “God Moment”.

I am so thankful that God has allowed me to be a part of some of these moments in life. We should all be aware of the “God Moments” that each of us experience along the journey.

Brother Leonard