Phyllis Beveridge Nissila

“THE WEDDING SONG”

From time to time in my life, Noel Paul Stookey’s “The Wedding Song (There is Love)”–melody and lyrics, both of which Stookey attributes to an answer to prayer (see “The Testimony,” below)–has inspired me with a suggestion here, an invitation there, and deeper layers of meaning, always.

Stookey, a member of the folk group “Peter, Paul, and Mary,” knew that it was “much broader” than just a song for Peter  Yarrow’s wedding, by which he meant it also conveys spiritual truth.

To broader meanings(s) and from my meditation today, I understand that as complex and profound as the lyrics are, they are as simple as one single, powerful, and empowering verse, the central theme of God’s Word, aka His “love letter to us”:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

This song came to mind just now because in such a time as this, songs like this are in danger of being erased completely by the Marxist cancel crowd as they attempt to finish the destruction of the most powerful and transcendent reality of all cultures and eras: love. It seems to me, anyway.

Love as in not only “the union of two spirits” in marriage but also the union of all believers in Christ who choose to say “I do” to God’s love, gifted to, and replicated in, His people by the power of His Spirit–not to mention other kinds of love experienced and expressed by people in all aspects of life.

But why would the cancellers attempt to destroy love, especially spiritual love?

Because despite all the anti-Christian mocking and hatred currently catching flame as totalitarianism “hardens” (see last post), Christianity not only survives but thrives, as history reveals, too–especially when the velvet gloves of “soft totalitarianism” come off to reveal iron fists.

And love, especially the love of God, is the greatest of all unifiers, peace-promoters, and civilization-enrichers. Not to mention the eternal benefits.

Thus, this kind of transcendent–and eternal–power flourishes, because as opposed to he who “steals, kills, and destroys” i.e. our real enemy, and his cohorts in the flesh, there is One Greater, Who “has come that they may have life, and have it to the full”.

Hardened totalitarians can’t have any of that.

But here’s another revelation: many, perhaps millions, of those very same budding or even committed totalitarians are, even as I write this, in God’s loving sites, and He is drawing them near.

As mysterious as is the way that two people know each other is “the one,” those to yet come into the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ*, will know His compelling importance, too, because of yet another mysterious process, the ultimate “stealth operation,” you might call it, of God’s Holy Spirit drawing this one, and that one, and others over there.

It’s described in John 3:8:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

So the destroyers can cancel songs, Bibles, fellowships, prayers–even love itself if ever that were possible–by which a truth seeker might yet “hear God” in the sound of the (literal) wind of a certain restless night, or “see Him” in a translucent rainbow after a cleansing storm, or marvel at yet another of His creations in the gentle coo of one newly joined to the human race and already evoking a love a mother could not even imagine possible prior, even if this newborn is not her first.

Indeed, there as many ways for humans to note God’s reality and presence–despite the myriad ways the enemy and his tribe may attempt to void it–as there are figurative and literal stars above.

Put another way in Romans 1:19-20:

^{19 …}since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Perhaps, even, something in the lyrics and melody below might draw the hungry of heart, the distressed of mind, and the lonely of spirit…

THE MUSIC

THE TESTIMONY

THE ROSETTA STONE

The Rosetta Stone (as in a key to unlock comprehension, insight, and answers) might reveal the spiritual aspect of the lyrics thus: replace “he” and “his” with Jesus; and replace “love” with God’s love as in the gift of His only begotton Son, Jesus, as per the verse above.

And as far as what are commonly thought to be official church congregations, His people, known as the Body of Christ, are in fact everywhere; indeed, wherever even just two or three are present, in His name (as in His character, ministry) His Spirit is ever leading, teaching, comforting, healing, and restoring.

As put in His own words:

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)

And if I have learned anything through meditating on the meaning of this musical gift given to Noel Paul, the troubador, it has been that there will be more revelation, guidance, healing, restoration and insights to come.

No matter who or what tries to cancel Him.

Because that never has, will not now, nor ever will, happen.

As put in Hebrews 13:8:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

~~~~~

*For information on how and why to receive the greatest of all gifts of love, see here.