Angel, Fly On

I had a neat thing happen to me today. I sang the closing song at a funeral--which was a first for me. The man who passed away wasn't anyone I knew personally, so I was surprised to get a call from my local bishop asking me to sing. Wow. Of course I accepted. Apparently, the man who passed away (I am not going to put his name on here just in case the family would not want me to do so) had chosen this song to specifically be sung at his funeral. The song is an old Willie Nelson song entitled "Angel Flying too Close to the Ground." Fitting, since he was a pilot (it's a song about an angel who broke its wing, someone patched it up, hung around, fell in love, but knew the angel would fly away some day, and says "leave me if you need to but I'll remember"--sad, huh?).

I hadn't heard it before, so I learned it over the weekend and his wife was kind enough to get me a copy of the sheet music. I was planning on singing it acapela but Reuben ended up playing it on the guitar. It sounded so sweet and pretty. I loved it! I was afraid that I'd cry during the song (since I cried my eyes out listening to the cd...and I'm no good at funerals anyways) but I made it through okay. As soon as I started singing there were soooo many people just sobbing. In that moment, I felt blessed that I was able to do something for them that was special. It was so touching. During the last note of the song, I looked at his wife and she had tears in her eyes and mouthed "thank you, that was beautiful" to me. I smiled at her, sat down, and then burst into tears! :) It was so sweet. I think it meant everything to her that I would sing her late husband's favorite song. I really am grateful that I could share this gift at such a personal time for this family. I just feel so happy for some reason, so I wanted to write about it. Reuben played the best he ever played, and I sang it even better than we rehearsed. I think God was helping us out!