No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus

hnI have shared a lot about Heidi recently. First when I interviewed her for “Inspiring Moms” then when she passed away, and then I recorded a song for her memorial.

Heidi encouraged me in so many ways including in worship. One day she approached me about singing a special solo in a Sunday service. Now you can’t just go requesting any song you want sung by any specific individual any time you feel like it. But my husband was the worship leader, and Heidi did get special privileges as the church member who was shall we say “most advanced in years”.

The song was “No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus”. The thing about this song was that she wanted to hear me sing it while she was still around and then sing it at her funeral when the time came. I’m not the best singer and there are plenty of girls who are more qualified on a performance level, but I don’t think Heidi cared about that. She cared about the words and she cared about the heart in which those words were delivered. The fact that she thought I would be the best person for the job is beyond humbling to me. Since then I moved away and had more and more kids making it extremely difficult to hop on a plane and fly in for the memorial service. I tried, but flying standby in the summer is definitely a gamble. It was really tearing me up inside. So Heidi’s family (some of my closest friends) suggested I send in a video.

I told them that considering my brother has a professional video/music studio I think we can pull a little something together. So I texted my brother and he agreed without hesitation.

It all went well and I was blessed by the positive feedback from Heidi’s family, including those I have never met.

Then on Sunday, my dad shared the video on Facebook with this caption

“Allow me to be a proud father this day… It is so rare to get this girl to sing publicly. Thanks Mrs. Lewiston for stretching her.”

A lot of people were commenting about how shocked they were that I could sing and they had no idea. Like I said that doesn’t mean I am a superstar with a phenomenal range and ability. I don’t have a secret desire to be a singer at all, but it did rekindle the love I have for music and worship and collaborating with my husband.

Just a couple days ago I was listening to a podcast and one of the guests talked about growing up in a musical family. It got me thinking; when Z and SJ were born I would have described our family as musical. Their dad was full time worship leader and their second home was a coffee shop with open mic night and musical festivals. Then we moved and SJ was diagnosed with profound hearing loss and life got crazy. Ezie and Elle haven’t really been exposed to that musical side of our lives at all since they have been born. I talked to J about how this made me kind of bummed and how I really liked working with him on a song for the first time in over 5 years!

Now that our lives are finally finding a steady rhythm again (no pun intended) I am inspired to cultivate a culture of music in our home once more and I have Heidi to thank for that.