“If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph; The only proof he needed for existence of God was music.” Kurt Vonnegut
Have you ever heard of the Cricket Song?
There is a reel that is making the rounds at the moment, it was popular a few years ago and kind of dropped out of sight. Today as I was scrolling, the video started to play. It was called: “Cricket Song.” There was a man who loved nature, he loved the sounds, the birds all that nature entails. In the video, the composer simply recorded crickets chirping. He then slowed down the sound of the crickets significantly. What he heard after that was nothing short of amazing. The crickets were singing an almost angelic song.
The Crickets were like an angelic choir
It was as if the crickets were singing a hymn to God himself. John Keats wrote a poem called, “On the Grasshopper and Cricket.” In the poem, Keats stated that the poetry of earth is never dead. I do agree with him, but I would add the song of praise of the earth is never dead. In Psalms there are several songs dedicated to God and his presence made known through nature. Psalm 19 declares, “The heavens declare the glory of God. The wonder of his works displays the firmament.” I’ve sung that song many times through the years. It is beautiful.
The Scriptures tell us of nature’s hymn to God
You will go out with joy, and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12. What is the common theme here? Nature sings to God. Whether it is the rustling of the trees as they flow in the wind, the pitter patter of rain, the glorious thunder or the simple chirp of a cricket. There is always a song.
In early morning walks nature was singing
My husband and I used to get up at dark:30 and walk. What is dark:30? Really, really early in the morning. The silence in the darkness as we walked was palpable but you could sense the dawn was coming. Even in that silence the gentle wind announced its intention of the sunrise. Right before dawn the birds slowly started chirping, the sounds became louder and louder as the light shone brighter. In my musician’s mind, I immediately thought that their bird song was thanking God for another dawn of a new day. I used to be annoyed by the incessant chirping, but after that realization I saw the song of nature through a new lens.
Life feels like a Screwtape
Now, I know life is charging along at a breakneck pace, it seems as if the world is just on fire. There is a lot of noise out there at the moment that can dampen the song of nature. Last week I was reading The Screwtape Letters. In the middle of a passage, I had a lightbulb moment. We are in a way, living in a time of Screwtape, there are wars all around us, social media, what news is real and true? There are so many distractions that keep us not focused on the true message. To love God and love our neighbor.
Distractions are plentiful these days
Who was Screwtape? He was a member of the bureaucracy of hell. What is bureaucracy? Strictly speaking, it is a group of individuals that make decisions of importance for citizens, rather than elected officials. I like to think of bureaucrats as Vogons. Douglas Adams described a Vogon as one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy, bad tempered, officious, callous, rude and unpleasant. They wouldn’t lift a finger to save their grandmother from the Ravenous Bugbladder Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, buried in soft peat and finally recycled as firelighters. That is a Screwtape to me. They keep us distracted just enough to lose sight of the real life activities that matter.
Find your “Cricket Song”
Back to the cricket song. Some have tried to debunk if the song is even real. Others say that the person who recorded the crickets overlaid a keyboard to give it dramatic effect. Whether that is true or not. I still believe that the animals, trees and bugs do sing a song to nature. If you have a moment, quiet your mind and listen to the song of nature. Talk to someone that you don’t necessarily agree with. Say a prayer for someone you know needs it. That is one of the many songs of praise that we can sing in our lives. In my walks with my husband my little musings were birthed and also a piece of music was composed in my head. I called it Pensée. You can listen here.
I leave you with the timeless words of Martin Luther. “Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.”
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