Preparing For Worship – Gina Biddle.
Today is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Each day we are given to live is a good thing and a new day to rejoice and be glad. As I visit patients as a hospital palliative care chaplain, I love to look at the Dallas skyline as the day begins and give thanks for this day and the opportunity to give praise, even in a hospital stay.
Today as we prepare for worship at Wilshire, let us give thanks for the privilege and honor to worship together — some in like mindedness and some who are curious seekers for life and a relationship with that which is greater than man could ever be: “God.”
A song in worship today, “Kumbaya,” originated in 1926. Merriam-Webster defines the word as “characterized by or exhibiting a belief in harmony between people and in their essential goodness.” The song resonated many times during my life as I matured and was faced with the trials and tribulations of life. “Kumbaya” was sung at my Walk to Emmaus in 2005 at Lake Lavon and by women in prison in Gatesville, Texas, as I served with Kairos. The spiritual pleads for divine intervention — for God to come by here and help a people in great need.
I recall learning in seminary that each word of the song title is an actual Hebrew word: Kum means arise; bah means come — or is coming — and Yah is the name of the eternal God. It’s amazing to look back at songs sung to support the lost and deprived who really had meaning and worth in the Bible. We need only to research and learn the history and origin of the songs we sing in praise and worship that are connected to the history of our foremothers and forefathers.
My prayer today is that each word sung in “Kumbaya” resonates with you intimately and personally, and that you feel a sense that God is with each of you in this life journey. May God come by you and provide your every need, now and forever.
When we are in need of God’s merciful hand, may we lift our hearts high and sing “Kumbaya.”