Spirituality, Nature, and Songs

Readers who have a colonized view of Scripture will have a hard time with this blog post. The controlled narrative that has been passed down for centuries will block your blessing of seeing how God works in this world.

As a young boy, I would sit on the back deck and look up at the sky. If there were clouds, I would use my imagination to find out what the clouds looked like. I remember sharing this information with my mother. I remember looking at the stars at night and admiring what I could see of the universe. I enjoy looking at the pictures that my coworker shows me during his time of exploring astronomy.

Nature has fascinated me for a large part of my life. I remember being in 4-H at Pulaski Elementary and writing a paper for Arbor Day while attending Southside Elementary in the 5th Grade. I remember Daddy having us watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom every Sunday night as a child.

I enjoyed spending time in the country visiting family members like Aunt Flora and Uncle Thomas Holbert. I enjoyed my countryside excursions with Mama as Uncle Robert Everly guided us past historical places where our family use to live, land that we used to own, and sharing stories of ancestors who had passed on before us. I loved visiting my cousin, Cha Chi. It was always peaceful being out on Owl Hollow Road.

I remember going to the Cook Museum in Decatur, Alabama and getting to see nature on display. I remember listening to and watching birds. I have enjoyed watching animals in nature for as long as I can remember. I’ve been to the beach on a few occasions. I’m fascinated by the vastness and the sheer power of the ocean. But there is something about the country that satisfies my soul.

Before I continue, I have to give you some backstory to build a foundation to help you better understand why birds, nature, and songs help me to connect to the ancestors. I will do that in the next few sections and then return to my examples.

In my blog post entitled “Contemplative Prayer and Spirituality”, I talked about how Spiritual Formation opened me up to what God is doing in the spiritual realm. Not only did Dr. Jackie Halstead introduce me to the different spiritual disciplines, but my Intro to Theology class also helped me to make a spiritual connection.

I remember the day that Dr. John Mark Hicks introduced us to the Eucharist practice of sharing the table with the past, present, and future. The focus was remembering someone who had helped to get us to that moment in life, those who were currently helping us (including our classmates), and those who were to come after us. It was that weekend that I understood how powerful the sacrament of remembering the Last Supper could be. Some of us were in tears because we had not experienced the presence of the spirit world in this capacity.

There may be a skeptic reading this blog post. And that is your prerogative. But keep reading. There may be something to help.

At Taylor St. Church of Christ and many other congregations that I visited during my lifetime, we had a table that read these words, “DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OR ME”. These words were quoted weekly when we got ready to take the communion or what we called the “Lord’s Supper”.

It became such a ritual that I wonder if we even paid attention to the words that we recited. We had a specific time of church service that was dedicated to a man who no longer lives in this physical realm, but we believe exists in the spiritual realm. Essentially, we were practicing something in the physical that consisted of communing with or remembering a man who we believed died and rose again after three days.

The Apostle Paul taught the believers of the Way at Rome that they were joint heirs with Yeshua HaMashiach. Therefore, he is our ancestor. Essentially, the Churches of Christ taught me to remember my ancestor (Yeshua) on the first day of every week.

Some will read this and deny it. But several groups of people practice remembering ancestors. My definition of remembering ancestors is not about idolizing a person. It is about remembering the good the person did to help make a difference in the lives of others. Remembering the examples that were set before will help to encourage us to continue to follow the Way despite the obstacles that we may face in life. 

Those that say that “ancestor worship” is not biblical will sometimes be the main ones who will romanticize about those who practiced or participated in atrocities towards controlling or destroying other humans. An example of this is the American practice of naming architectural structures, roads, and institutions after people who terrorized other humans and then fighting to protect the legacy if someone mentions a name change. Even in death, these people are immortalized by stone monuments in graveyards and strategic locations around the country. How is this not idolizing another human? Isn’t the God of the Bible a jealous God? Didn’t the God of the Bible say that no other god should come before the one that Hagar called El-Roi? I would agree that this practice is not biblical because it does not follow the path set before us by Yeshua.

The letter to the Hebrews encouraged believers to be cognizant about showing hospitality to strangers because they could be unknowingly entertaining angels. I believe that what we call “creating memories” is actually us intentionally sharing a spiritual connection with people that will stay with them even after we transition. This is a way for us to connect with the living after we enter into the Land of the Ancestors.

You may think this is farfetched. But look at the life of the Jesus of the Gospels. His loved ones remembered him long after he physically left this life. Followers of the Way still practice learning from and imitating someone we have never met in this physical realm, but we connect with his living spirit through the Ancient Texts written about his life. We may not want to admit it. But we connect with this Ancestor when we teach, preach, and live the examples that he left during his short life.

Connecting with ancestors is not about replacing God or idol worship. It is about experiencing the Text that speaks about the Great Cloud of Witnesses. I’m crazy enough to believe that those who have transitioned before us (The Ancestors) are a part of this Cloud of Witnesses.

So… What do birds, nature, and songs have to do with connecting to the Ancestors? Birds symbolize a lot of things that are connected to God and the spirit world. Cardinals and Blue Jays are (2) species of birds that I see that remind me that God is watching over me. Sometimes they show up when I’m thinking about those who have gone on before me. Sometimes they show up out of nowhere.

Clinton Atkins’ blog post entitled “Spiritual Meaning of Seeing a Blue Jay and Cardinal Together” deals with the symbolism of seeing these (2) birds together. Some believe that since these birds can be rivals, seeing them together could not only be a miracle but it could also mean peace and harmony. Jorge Silva’s blog post entitled “11 Spiritual Meanings of Seeing a Blue Jay and Cardinal Together” talks about why it is rare to see these (2) birds in the same vicinity. They say it’s rare, but Tiffany and I frequently see it.

You may be asking why I would use resources that have nothing to do with the Bible. It’s simple. The Bible has multiple examples of spiritual references but many groups within American Christianity have taught spirituality out of the Text. So, I used provocative articles that could help someone to open themselves to possibilities that I know exist with how God gives us signs. 

There is more to nature than science and folklore. The Creator created the universe. If we believe that, then it should be okay to use nature to explore how the Creator communicates through it. Besides, have we forgotten the Text of Genesis 9? God told Noah that when the rainbow is visible, God will remember the covenant between God and Humanity. Signs are visible. We have just allowed the colonialist teachings of Eurocentric theology and Constantinian philosophy to disconnect us from humanity’s origins of being the perfect blend between Creation and Divinity.

One day while on a Silent Retreat, I sat and listened to the sounds of nature and was able to connect with the Uncle Thomas that I wrote about earlier in this post. I was reminded of the good times I had with him at his house in the country. It brought tears to my eyes, but I felt the comfort of God in that short spiritual moment. I enjoy when I have these moments in nature. However, it makes it difficult because most people do not understand the beauty of this spiritual practice. So, they interrupt you and want to talk not realizing that you really just want to sit out in nature (whether in the woods or on your front or back porch) and commune with the spirit realm.

Because people do not understand my desire to sit in nature, I commune with the Ancestors through songs. There are several songs that I hear that will continue to connect me to the Land of the Ancestors. Here are a few. When I hear, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” it is connected to the hospitable spirit of James Albert Bell. The melodious music and repeated phrase of “Everything is Alright” at the end of the song “Lovin You” is connected to the love that my Aunt Emma Jean Carter showed us before she tragically lost her life. Hearing the O’Jays sing that everything is alright mixed with the violins, snare drums, horns, and the piano at the end of that song gave me comfort to know that she loved all of us unconditionally. Lee Williams and The Spiritual QCs’ song “I Can’t Give Up” is connected to the perseverance and the love that my Grandmother Pearl Campbell showed me. I did not get to spend as much time with her as I did my Grandmother Mary Jane Grigsby. So, when we talked, we connected through songs. One of our last conversations was about our love for some of our favorite gospel music songs.

Rance Allen’s catalog of melodious Psalms that he left with us speak directly to my soul. I have stated on multiple occasions that it was almost like he was able to bottle the Holy Spirit (or as Black People say, the Holy Ghost) up in the words of his songs to encourage his listeners that God is always with us.

I conclude this post by addressing those who already are connected or are starting to connect to the spirituality of how the Creator works in the universe. I want you to know that you are not wrong to explore how the God of Howard Thurman, Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, and James Baldwin is working through different avenues in your life. I remember the Elders telling us as kids to respect the dead and don’t play with spirits. The denial of the connection between the living and spiritual that I’ve heard taught by some in American Christianity is dangerous because it is antithetical to the teachings of the Text that we call the Bible.

Dr. James Cone (may his soul rest with the Ancestors) opened me up to the concept that “you cannot separate the sacred and the secular.” In a recent conversation with a Jewish Rabbi, she stated that some followers of Judaism believe that any mundane moment can become a sacred moment because they are intentional about YHWH being involved.

To my melanated readers, the Ancestors and Elders were right by holding onto the spirituality that helped them make it through the atrocities of history in this country. Despite the fact that some cannot understand the practice (remembering ancestors), keep leaning into learning about who you are and the resiliency of how God helped them to survive the imperialistic control of the society during their time. It will help you to persevere in your walk with the one known as El-Roi.