We were visiting friends in Tucson, escaping the freezing temperatures for a brief respite to the warmth of the sun and the warmth of a welcome.  After a restful day exploring the wonder of the desert, we gathered together for evening prayer before turning in.  A particular phrase of one of my friend’s prayer caught my heart and my imagination.  “Father, sing your lullaby of delight over us”.

I used to make up songs for my children, singing lullabies softly to coax my young sons to sleep.  Never remembering the correct words, I would make them up as I went along inserting their names often.  I loved it.  Turns out, they loved it too.

As I laid me down to sleep that night in Tucson, I asked God what his lullaby of delight over me sounded like.

My mind immediately flashed to holy moments from earlier in the day - sitting alone in the shade listening to the wind blow through the leaves of the eucalyptus trees towering above me, the sound like water, like the movement of life.  I remembered the sound of the red tail hawks crying and calling to each other as they circled above their nearby nest.  The song of quails and mourning doves and birds I didn’t recognize added their melodies – a living spontaneous symphony.  Then all was quiet again save for the movement of leaves as another gentle rolling breeze sung its way through the magnificent swaying trees.  Beautiful.

A holy song.  A lullaby of delight.