You were born to be loved

In ministry, there are sometimes moments when something unexpected happens, something that spills out of our careful containers of planning and order, something that points simply, poignantly, and powerfully to the hope of the gospel in a way that no eloquent sermon or finely crafted liturgy ever could. I love these moments. Even when I don’t notice them. 

During worship last week, a university student played and sang a song toward the end of the service. She comes from a missionary family and spent most of her school years in Japan. She wanted to sing us one of her favorite songs in Japanese. Before she sang, she translated the words for us in English. I don’t remember all of the words, but the one refrain that stuck in my head was this: “You were born to be loved.”

The song was beautiful and beautifully performed. After the service, I thanked her for her song and told her how much I appreciated it. She excitedly said to me, “Did you hear what happened?” I had not heard anything. I was listening to the song, but I was also mentally preparing for my next part in the service.  As it turns out, there was a young Korean man near the back of the sanctuary who had been singing along with her throughout. It seems that the song that she was singing in Japanese was originally a Korean song—a song that was one of his favorites, too, a song that reminded him of the home he missed, a song that he hadn’t had many opportunities to sing since moving to Canada to work with L’Arche. And so he sang.