Our Song from the Birdcage

Merry Go ‘Round- Kasey Musgraves

I heard this song on the radio and instantly fell in love with it. The creative play on the word ‘Mary’ and the soft, sad lyrics struck me. I’ve replayed in multiple times. But I keep wondering why (…aside from the fact I usually play a song until I kill it)?

Despite the sorrow this song spins, I found something beautiful in it. There’s something about brokenness that keeps us quietly listening… waiting.

We listen because we want to know… is there a mend?

Ever heard the story of Pandora’s box? It’s part of Greek mythology that a young woman named Pandora naively opened a beautiful box that let lose disease, starvation, murder, and every dark thing into the world—but at the very bottom, the only beautiful thing inside—was hope.

This isn’t far from our own story. Eve bit into the seemingly-beautiful apple that unleashed sin and death into our world.

But hope was also born. A gift was yet given.

Even though this song doesn’t ‘lyrically’ speak of goodness, beauty is yet there. God shows Himself in Kasey’s voice and the notes entwined together in a pattern that holds our attention. He is evident, even if He is not spoken of.

But here’s what really grabbed me: the sound of faint hope. No one speaks of feeling broken unless they believe that by speaking that they may find an answer.

Isn’t it beautiful?

Even in the darkest corners of life, we’ve been given the ability to hope for hope.

 

Emily Dickenson wrote a stunning picture of what this looks like:

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,

                                    And sings the words without the tune, and never stops, at all.”

 

We’ve all got the same beautiful bird living in our lungs. If we breathe, hope breathes.

 

And where we place this hope has the power to either pull us away into despair, or sing us homeward into the goodness of a God Who Loves.

We all seek a savior. No one gets through life without feeling stuck.  

When I find myself here, when life seems overwhelming,—who am I asking to set me free?

 …And what kind of freedom am I looking for?

The ‘Merry Go Round’ Kasey sings of may not stop spinning. The father, mother, and brother sung about in this song may still be stuck on their addictive form of ‘Mary.’ The small town may stay small. But real hope is not found in placing our hope in the changing of other people, or even our circumstances.

Real hope begins with the Gospel.

It begins with a change in us.

The love of Christ pierces through our nightmares. The empty hopelessness our sin leads us into.

 

Our eyes can be opened. Our hearts can be softened. Our thoughts can become beautiful. Our actions, our words, our deeds, can become selfless. We can become joy-full.

 ALIVE. HEALED. NEW.

Whatever the bird sings within your chest, here is where we are meant to REST. Our song by which we seek hope is meant to lead us to the CROSS. To blindingly beautiful, true hope. 

Real hope is not wishing; it is knowing that a promise will come true.

 

And these are the promises: Death has no sting (1 Corinthians 15:55). He will come for us. This World will pass, but He will not (Matthew 24:25). We are loved, forgiven, cherished. We are called my child. A City Not Forsaken (Isaiah 62:12). He will begin a good work in us (Philippians 1:6), and use all things to conform more and more to the character of Christ (Romans 8:28-29).

 Taste and see, nothing on earth holds more hope than His promises do.

 

HIS love is …everlasting…always…undying…

Every beautiful word that we dream love can be described by is found in the Cross.

 

Rest easy, hope in Him will not disappoint. Praying for you, whoever you are, for a heart that hopes in HIM to right the wrong.

 

            “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence

       For my HOPE is from him.

        He only is my rock and my salvation

          My fortress; I shall never be shaken.

         On God rests my salvation and my glory;

      My mighty rock, my refuge is God.”

         -   Psalm 62: 5-7

I started with a song about sorrow. Here’s a song about being lifted from darkness into light, from hopeless to full of hope:  

 

Like an Avalanche- Hillsong United