Beware: this blog entry has no pictures! Kathy went to bed early without blogging, and so, like an eel, I slither into the vacuum she left. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share. You have been warned. 
About ten days ago I wrote a post (Gotta Tell Somebody) about the powerful and touching Bible stories told in song by Don Francisco, a Christian musician I enjoyed in the 70′s and 80′s. I promised that I would post a review of Too Small a Price (another of Francisco’s songs), but I’ve changed my mind, and that will have to wait.
Yesterday, as we prepared the house for the Small Group Bible Study that often meets at our house, there was a moment of uncharacteristic silence, and I noticed that there was no music playing. This is pretty unusual for us, especially on Sundays when we do much of our cleaning — Kathy and I love to have Christian music to lift the spirits of any who are discouraged.
Because my wife is such a variety chick, we try to have a lot of music available — Kathy doesn’t like to listen to any one song or album too much. I tend to fixate on a small group of favorite songs, and it is not uncommon for me to listen to a single album (on shuffle repeat) for a whole day. Whenever there is no music playing, whoever notices it first gets to choose what we listen to (at least for a while), and so I quickly fired up Media Player on my computer and launched one of my favorite Don Francisco songs.
When the song was over, David (who was quietly playing a computer game in the kitchen) piped up:
“I like that song better than Blessed Be Your Name.”
This is nearly an heretical statement in our family, because that song (I first heard it recorded by Tree 63) had a huge impact on me, as partially discussed in this post from 2005. My children know that it is my favorite song, and several of them share that preference (or pretend to, hoping I’ll share my ice cream with them).
But it is true that this song is my favorite of the Don Francisco songs. I have a lot of favorites. This one is a particularly pretty and poignant song about God’s love for us ‘all down through the ages’ and His desire to be reunited with us, in spite of our sin and our rejection of Him. Please click on the Audio MP3 link below … I hope you enjoy it.
Unashamed and naked in a garden that has never seen the rain,
Rulers of a kingdom, full of joy — never marred by any pain,
The morning all around them seems to celebrate the life they’ve just begun;
And in the majesty of innocence the king and queen come walking in the sunBut the master of deception now begins with his dissection of the Word
And with all of his craft and subtlety the serpent twists the simple truths they’ve heard,
While hanging in the balance is a world that has been placed at their command
And all their unborn children die as both of them bow down to Satan’s hand.And just before the evening in the cool of the day, They hear the voice of God as He is walking
And they can’t abide His presence, so they try to hide away;
But still they hear the sound as He is calling:“Adam, Adam, where are you?
Adam, Adam, where are you?
Adam, Adam, where are you?”In the stifling heat of summer now the gardener and his wife are in the field
And it seems that thorns and thistles are the only crop his struggles ever yield
He eats his meals in sorrow ’til he sinks into the dust whence he came
But all down through the ages he can hear his Maker calling out his name.“Adam, Adam, where are you?
Adam, Adam, where are you?”And though the curse has long been broken
Adams’ sons are still the prisoners of their fears
Rushing helter-skelter to destruction with their fingers in their ears
While the Fathers voice is calling with an urgency I’ve never heard before
“Won’t you come in from the darkness now, before it’s time to finally close the door?”“Adam, Adam, where are you?
Adam, Adam, where are you?
Adam, Adam, I love you!”
