Last night we were singing songs around a bonfire when out of the blue Olia and Nova starting belting out, in unison,
Keith Green's Easter Song...I was stunned for a minute.
It was like the moment in Ratatouille when food critic, Anton Ego, takes one bite of his childhood memoir casserole dish and immediately gets transported back in time through all the emotions and sensations and nostalgia of home life past...
that's what a Keith Green song does for me. Instant transportation.
I've sat in on the kids' Easter service singing practice this past month, but at the time, they weren't practicing this particular song. What a surprise last night for me! Together, we sang the Easter Song over and over and over and then eventually went inside sometime after 9pm. I got out the laptop and we all gathered around, watching clip after clip of Keith Green music and testimony.
Even this morning, I'm still flooded with emotion as I recall the power behind the music of my childhood experience. My family was musical. My dad was a worship leader. My brother is too. We always had music in our home and Keith Green was on high rotation. Looking back into his story as an adult and reading of him and his ministry for the first time with grown up eyes and heart, I have to say he still inspires me...maybe more now than ever.
In all honesty, because of the loss of my mom when I was a teenager and my dad also now being in heaven with the Lord, the emotions of Keith Green's music and the ties it rekindles to my childhood are nearly too much to bear. It's overwhelming the flooding my heart feels as I listen and remember.
What strikes me most is how I recall as a young child feeling the lyrics so deeply in my heart, believing them, and desiring others to know Jesus the same way that I would literally ask friends to listen to the record player in my room, being sure to highlight the most important words. Remembering these things gives me joy as I think of my own children and the beauty of childhood salvation.
"O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds."
Psalm 71:17
It's not uncommon for childhood salvation to be questioned, but truly, it is precious. The innocence of the kind of faith Jesus spoke so highly of, childlike faith, is very real and not to be undermined.
Ah, how we adults can complicate things so, when faith in Jesus is actually meant to be simple.
"And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 18:2-4
Passion and boldness and intense, unashamed love for Jesus...that's what Keith Green stood for. That's what I want to stand for. I have to admit the fact that he was a hippy of sorts (after all, it was the 70's) still resonates with me. (I think I'll always be a bit of a hippy, no matter the decade I find myself in.) But, mostly, as I listen to his music, intent upon hearing the words from the Word, I'm moved. It wasn't the length of Keith Green's life that mattered, it was what he did with the time that he was given...
and his legacy lives on.
I cannot wait to see our kids up on stage this coming Easter Sunday singing out this special Easter Song!
"But the angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.'"
Matthew 28:5-6
