I feel it more than I hear it. It is always just out of reach, just out of earshot. But I know it is there. Everyday sounds fill my ears – but somehow music that I can’t quite hear fills my heart and enters my mind. I listen for words and notes, but I can’t quite make them out. Still, my spirit soars to this unheard chorus, my feet dance joyfully to its rhythm, I hum along to unknown notes, my soul sings words that feel familiar even though I can’t quite make them out, and I know they are expressing all my deepest longings and greatest joys. I march to the beat of this music. It is instinctive. I am drawn to it. I march to the beat of the drums, to the beat of an unseen drummer. I march to the beat of the different drummer.

I always have without understanding why. The unseen drummer of the unseen chorus – the unheard drummer of the unheard band – drowned out by the noise of the world – making nonstop music nonetheless – never ceasing melodies of joy – exquisite tunes of pain turned into praise – songs of sorrow soothed surround me continually as I go about my day. This unheard melody is my constant companion – an everchanging playlist filling my heart and mind – a truer tune – beautiful harmonies in my head – barely audible here, still the soft, sweet notes of my unheard melody are strong enough to override the strident notes of discord that surround me. Where does this unheard melody that keeps me such constant company come from? Psalm 19 gives me a clue –

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)

Could it be this melody which fills my being even though I cannot hear it, has always been? Is it an eternal tune echoing throughout the universe, traveling across time? Job 38:4 & 7 give me a clue as they recount a conversation between God and Job – God asks this of Job –

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? . . . while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”

So, the music was already present when God was creating the earth – stars and angels singing and shouting. Reminds me of a very special night on earth more than two-thousand years ago. On that night, some mere mortals did hear the unheard melody of the universe, if only for a little while. It was the night the angel appeared to the shepherds in the Bethlehem hills, to announce to them the birth of Jesus, the Christ child, the long awaited Messiah.

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.” (Luke 2:13-14) (post – “silent night”)

The music is eternal, it is always playing, just like a favorite childhood hymn of mine says –

“This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings, the music of the spheres.”

All of God’s creation is singing, spheres, angels, birds, stars, even God Himself, according to the prophet Zephaniah who says,

“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

Job must have listened to the unheard melody of God’s singing, because he wrote these words –

“But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,’ ” (Job 35:10)

It appears the psalmist also heard the unheard melody via songs in the night, since in Psalm 42:8 I read –

“By day the Lord directs His love, at night His song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life.”

Yes, there’s music everywhere, if only I have ears to hear it. Heaven is full of music, so full, I feel it must be spilling over onto earth, mixing with the music of earth’s creation, joining with the singing of the stars, with every sunrise and every sunset adding their voices, all continually singing praise to God the Creator.

In heaven I will hear the music clearly, every note, every word. It will no longer be an unheard melody carried in my heart. Just as, “now I see through a glass darkly, then I shall see face to face.” Now, I long to hear and to sing this eternal, celestial tune. Then, I will witness this –

“Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: ‘To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’ ” (Revelation 5:11-13)

That’s a really big choir and I’ll get to join in with them. Actually, I can do that now, adding my earthly voice of praise to the chorus, joining the stars, the angels, the saints in songs of praise – preparing for the time when my unheard melody will be unheard no more and I will realize this –

“When in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song – it will be the old, old story that I have loved so long.”

maybe that’s why this unheard melody of the universe feels oh so familiar!?

sincerely, Grace Day