The Crying Ceases When The Music Comforts

The Crying Ceases When The Music Comforts

LORD, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. Psalm 10:17

When I walked into the nursing home, I could immediately tell what kind of day Phyllis was having by the decibel level of her cries.

Phyllis had cried every day since her stroke. It had taken away her ability to speak, and she was distressed that she could no longer communicate clearly. The staff and I did everything we could. We comforted her, fed her, and kept her clean and dry, but nothing seemed to help. Her crying continued unabated.

Fortunately, her roommate was totally deaf and unaware of Phyllis’s plight.

One day, after weeks of Phyllis’s crying, a staff member turned on a radio in her room. The soft classical music seemed to immediately affect Phyllis, and the change in volume was obvious to everyone in the home. Phyllis’s cries slowed and then stopped. She seemed soothed. For days, she didn’t cry at all; she just sat and listened. The days turned into weeks, and the staff started to notice that Phyllis would smile when certain songs played on the radio.

Somehow, as the months passed, the music healed something inside of Phyllis. She no longer looked hopeless, and she no longer cried, unless she was trying to communicate something specific to us.

Phyllis isn’t unique. There is something deep within each of us that is touched by music. It resonates in our hearts and souls and heals us from the inside out.

Ever since Phyllis’s stroke, people had been praying that she would find comfort, and she did. Now they’re praying that she doesn’t go deaf like her roommate so the music can continue to comfort her.

TODAY’S RX

God uses music to touch us in places where words can’t reach.

I’m grateful, Father, for the healing power of music. Thank you for the calming effect it has on me. May I sing your praises and worship you all the days of my life.