Thought I would share the song “Night Sky” and its story with you today. It is from the Even A Sparrow project [recording and book] released last year that tells a three-year story of God’s faithfulness to my family.
Song: Night Sky (Click to hear)
Story:
In The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, a group nine companions set out on a journey together to destroy a ring that was created by evil for evil. Before they left, they were each given a unique gift that would be needed along their journey. As the rest of the story unfolds in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, each traveler indeed needed the gifts they were given because the journey was longer and harder than anyone imagined. In a similar way, the song ”Night Sky” was a unique gift to me from my Heavenly Father and its arrival was perfectly timed. The song came together in a couple of hours on a Thursday afternoon after we had received the news that Jonathan was no longer responding to treatment. I sang the song in church the following Sunday morning. That night we ended up in the hospital for the last time, and called hospice on Monday. Throughout the whirlwind of Jonathan’s last two weeks and, even in the season following, I could hear Jesus singing this song over us.
In some ways “Night Sky” is the recap of our Three-Year Story. Our family had been divided, but in the years when Jonathan’s illness was at its worse, the Lord redeemed the time of division. We did all the things a family does together: rested, played, laughed, and lived. It feels like a lifetime of memories. Even though Jonathan had spent seventeen years rejecting God, he spent the last seventeen months of his life worshiping God. Like the gifts given in the The Lord of the Rings, “Night Sky” has helped me along a path longer and harder than I could have imagined. The ancient, steadfast faithfulness of God has been a safe place to walk and rest. Of course, not a starry night goes by without being reminded of all God has done and is continually doing.
“Night Sky” has a couple more layers of the sweet, detailed care of God. One of my favorite memories of Jonathan is him trying to trace constellations for me with his finger as we laid on wet grass and didn’t care. He loved the grandeur of the night sky and all its wonderment. For my unique gift to use imagery from one of Jonathan’s favorite things is a sweetness hard to describe. The closes thing I can imagine is the fragrance of blooming jasmine.
Additionally, at the time I wrote this song, I was working on a graphic design project that included the text of Psalm 139. At times it was like God was speaking the words of the Psalm to me about Jonathan—reassuring me about his presence with, his thoughts towards, his purpose for, and his everlastingness in Jonathan. Consider these lines selected from:
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol (death), you are there!…For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me…How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
‘If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
This display of the Lord’s sweet, detailed care was like being kissed by heaven while The Everlasting wrapped his goodness all around me.
The last lines of the “Night Sky” perfectly sum up our Three-Year Story. But much more than that, they hold the truth that I am compelled to share with you. Friends, there is no place, there is no space where the Lord does not know how to shine. Darkness cannot comprehend his light and his faithfulness. Amen.
To purchase the CD visit www.cdbaby.com/adriennescott
To purchase the Book visit www.createspace.com/5693932
Brave Sparrow 