Oh Happy Day!

Other than my wedding and the occasional funeral, I've never really cried in church - until now. My choir director Paul is Ukrainian, so we're use to singing Rachmaninoff, Gretchaninoff, and other Russian/Eastern European heavies. Although it sounds beautiful, it's like we're in a constant season of Lent. Today, that all changed. Paul chose a piece by Paul Halley, a British composer, who took the words from Song of Solomon and arranged it with a gospel twist. The words were beautiful and I've never heard Karen, our soprano soloist sing like that:

The Rain is Over and Gone

The rain is over and gone,
And the winter is passing by,
The time for singing has come,
And the clouds have parted from the sky.

Arise, my love, and come away,
For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone,
Over and gone, my love,
Come away, my fair one, come away.

We will rise and go to the city,
The city without any walls,
Where we can live in freedom,
To the new Jerusalem we're called.

Arise my love, my fair one,
For lo! the winter is gone,
The flowers appear on the earth again,
And the time for singing has come.

Sing of life and love and laughter,
Sing of freedom to live in peace,
And there shall be no more crying,
Only joy that will never cease.
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I think half of the congregation was crying after we finished singing.