We were singing “O for a Thousand Tongues To Sing” when it happened.
My best friend and I — we were 8 or 9 years old at the time — could giggle at a lot of things, and on this Sunday evening it was Charles Wesley’s great hymn.
The fifth verse (of 19, believe it or not), where it says, “Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ,” started it. The words “deaf,” “dumb” and “tongues” in one sentence were just hilarious when you had no sensitivity as to what the phrases meant. And then came, “And leap ye lame for joy.” Well, we were just about on the floor.
Whenever I sing that song now, I think of that moment at the now defunct congregation more than 40 years ago. Isn’t it interesting how songs will trigger specific memories?
I was reminded of that recently when I was reading one of the stories in Mike Milton’s recent book, “Small Things, Big Things.” Dr. Milton, the former pastor of First Presbyterian Church who is now president of Reformed Theological Seminary, was talking about how small words lead to big concepts and then to deeper stories.