Incredible Season

My parents are both gone. My mother passed in 2005. I sang at her funeral. A 4Him version of It Is Well. It's funny because I haven't sung that song since. I don't know why. I actually love it. I'm not overly fond of hymns (no hate mail please) but this is one I really like. I've sang other songs from her funeral since then but "It is Well", never. I'm going to have to be sure to put it in our service on Sunday.

A few years after I saw Nichole Nordeman at King's Christian School. While she sang Every Season I remember just having an emotional moment, remembering my mom, thinking how this could have been the song I sang because it was perfect.

Five years later I was faced with that same exact situation. This time I lost my dad. I knew I had to sing for his funeral just like my mothers. It's so difficult to sing at funerals ,but, an army friend while deployed told me before to think of it as one last gift. That's how I approached it. I could break down afterwards. And believe me, I always did.

Fall is my favorite season. I love the colors. Ironically, both of my parents died in the fall. My mother in late September and my father in late October. I remember learning Every Season and looking out my back door at the most beautiful of fall trees. I played it repeatedly for over a week. I wanted to make sure I could get through it. The hardest audience was when it was just me, my husband, and my dad at the funeral home.

I played that song so many times since. I played it again for my aunts funeral just a few short years ago. I can't think of a time I haven't had it in my set list.

My daughter had a dance competition in Lancaster, PA this past weekend. I knew Nichole Nordeman was going to be playing a concert there but I can't leave my daughter right? Well, the Lord just works. A week before I found out she would be finished for the day at 1pm so I came home and quickly grabbed some tickets including a couple Platinum packages (it must have been a sign as my daughter won two platinums for her solos). I had met Nichole before and so I knew this would be an awesome experience. She is just so down to earth and real. I like real.

The meet and greet was awesome. She came out casual, apologizing for being comfortable (I'm always comfortable). I asked her to tell me the story again about Every Season and how she came to write it and mentioned how I sang it for my dads funeral (and forgot to mention my Aunts as well). She asked if I got through it without crying, I said "yuppers", then the unimaginable happened, she asked if I would sing it with her. OMG. YES! I was so nervous on the first verse but by the second I was just into the music, the lyrics, feeling the Holy Spirit. What an experience.

So now, if you come to hear me play, you won't just hear the story of learning this song for such a sad time as my fathers funeral. You will hear me end with the incredible blessing of singing it with the songwriter, my favorite musician, Nichole Nordeman.


I am beyond blessed in this new season of my life.