My Soul Rejoices

By Tom Booth

Yes, our souls do rejoice because we have HOPE! Jesus is risen from the dead, alleluia!

I am in the studio right now with Jackie Francois, whom you all know through The Commons, The Perfect Playlist, and through her music on spiritandsong.com. We are busy recording her songs this month and I promise that you will hear something special when her CD is released this fall. I can say so because I am hearing all of the tracks while they are being recorded and played, and it is special. I can hear the end result in my head.

I know Jackie will prayerfully and artistically deliver the vocals for the songs. The players have done their job, providing us with wonderful tracks as well. I am certain of our end result, without hearing it or seeing it! But we will continue to humbly work hard and pray hard too, just like our faith life! We do not see the end — the end of our own lives — nor do we see the end of the world. But we have hope because we know Jesus is risen — and that changes everything.

We have reason to hope and we have reason to rejoice just like Mary, who birthed Christ, watched him grow, and encouraged him at the wedding at Cana to lend a hand to the embarrassed host who was out of wine ("Do whatever he tells you"). She held his limp body in her arms at the foot of the cross. Though she wept — and how deep the sorrow must have been — she held hope in her arms as well. She knew who he was. She must have remembered what the angel of the Lord had told her: "Do not fear . . . You will bear a son . . . He will be called the Son of the Most High . . . and NOTHING is impossible with God."

So we have hope! In the midst of life, without seeing the end, we have hope. If we walk with Jesus, the risen one, we have nothing to worry about. We stand with Mary saying, "Holy is his name." And we sing with Jackie Francois, "My soul rejoices in my God."