“Tell Me Oh Pretty Sky”   

Tell me oh pretty sky, what makes the stars so high?  What makes the rivers and what makes the streams?  What makes the flowers and grass so green?  If I knew all of that, I’d be so happy and gay.  God knows it all. He’s the One who knows.  Tell me oh pretty sky.

The above song was written by my big sister, Marlene, and I when we were just kids about ten and eleven years old.   I remember we were sitting on our back porch of the little yellow house on Kimball Street in a small country town in Illinois.  We were looking up at the big white puffy clouds rolling by.  The sky was so beautiful and we watched its movements in total silence for a very long time.

Suddenly, Marlene began to speak the first words of the song.  I soon interrupted her with a contributory word here and there.  When the song was finished, we jumped up and ran into the house to sing it to the whole family in two-part harmony.

I have since hummed that song or sang its words all of my life.  I love it!  But little did I know how authentic a prayer it was until one evening about 47 years later.  According to my journal, it was a Friday night in May 1996 about 12:30 a.m., and I was preparing my Sunday School lesson in my new home in Rockville, Maryland.

Often, I would begin my Bible study time with a song and that night I sang, “Tell Me Oh Pretty Sky”.  After I had prayed, I began my study by reading the following Bible scripture:

“I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.”  Isaiah 44:22

As I paused to meditate on those words, the Holy Spirit began to softly speak to me in response to my inquiry through song.  He said, My child, one reason why I set the clouds up above your back porch those many years ago was to remind you that I will not forget you and have swept away your offenses like a cloud.  And as for why I made the morning mist; that was just to remind you that like the mist, your sins disappear from before Me long before high noon.

Hallelujah!  At last I had confirmation to all those questions in that song.  The ‘what’ turned out to be the ‘Who”.  For indeed the Lord declares in a still small voice…

“I am the Lord who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by Myself.”  Isaiah 44:24b

                              Thank God for Sisters

Scripture Lesson:   But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Luke 18:16

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