10 June 2016
There is a certain tribe in Africa, called the Himba, and when a woman of the Himba tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they wait till they hear the song of the child to come.
Because they know that every heart has its own unique beat… its own wild purpose. And when the women attune to the song of the coming child, they sing it out loud.
Then they return to the tribe and teach this child’s unique song to everyone else.
And when the child is born, the Himba tribe gathers and sings the child’s song to him or her. Later, when the child begins school, the village gathers and chants the child’s song. And when the child passes through the initiation to adulthood, the Himba again come together and sing. And at the time of marriage, the person again hears the notes of her song.
To the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits sins, falls short, or loses her way, the individual is called to the center of the village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them.
They sing their song to them because the Himba believe that change most happens when we remember who we are — remember our identity — Whose we are…
But here is the part that belongs to me…
“Body and soul, I am marvelously made…
You know me inside and out,you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.”
Psalm 139
Journal 2 June 2016
God sang a song over me when He created me in my mother’s womb,
He has a plan and a purpose for my life,
I can attest to the fact that He has called me back to Him on those days that I lost my way, my hope, my joy…
He sings over my future, my grateful heart, my faith,
He will sing my song on that glorious day when He calls me home…
When you feel like you are losing your way,
we will sing your Father’s song to you,
all of us singing it soft and strong.
Till it perches in your lost places,
tuning you to what grace is,
and the lovesong of your Father,
who never stops singing at all.
Ann Voskamp