The Bells Toll

Today I was sitting at my desk reading. It was material I had taken with me to the office, in preparation for writing a future sermon. The commentary was about the old familiar hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers'. The writer was commenting on how problematic that particular hymn has become in our world today.

As I sat at my desk, I could hear in the background the sound of the organist practicing. Then shortly after that, I could also hear the church bells doing their ten o'clock chiming. I read on:

Some say Onward Christian soldiers is too triumphalist, suggesting that it is not sensitive to the other religious persuasions in the world. Many Christians live side-by-side not only with Jews, but also, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others. Our friends and neighbors of other religious persuasions might get a little nervous if we marched out of here in lockstep singing, "Forward into battle, see his banners go."

Something clicked deep in my subconscious mind. At the very exact moment I read that last line, the very same notes peeled out of the church chimes, in complete unison. Suddenly I understood. The church chimes were playing 'Onward Christian Soldiers' in perfect harmony with the paragraph, as I was reading it at that moment.

I was floored, flabbergasted, amazed, astonished. What are the odds that I would be reading those exact words at the exact moment they rang out of the church bells for all to hear?

For me, it was a jaw-dropping serendipitous moment, the kind that is so easily forgotten. I wanted to save it, savor it.

And so I wrote this down to be preserved for posterity.

I want to remember how the bells tolled their musical notes, in complete unison with the words I read, just for me! The bells tolled for me!