"...a song of the heart is a prayer unto me..."

I love Sundays!!!! We went to the Inwood Young Single Adult ward last Sunday after our family Ward. It was a wonderful experience. We were handed a program and it said: " speakers by invitation". That peaked our curiosity. It ended up being a musical Sacrament Testimony meeting. The audience was invited to come up and suggest a favorite hymn, the one verse they wanted the audience to sing and why it was so special to them. As we started singing you could hear a faint off key voice. Every once in a while it would get louder and cause a smile and curious look on our faces to see where it was coming from. Now remember, this is a YSA ward. Many young aspiring Artist, very musically talented, live in this area because it is cheaper to live here and commute down town, than to actually live down town. About 10 women to every 1 man. It was definitely a mans voice we were hearing. By the end of the meeting the off key voice had become very loud and confident. The final hymn was from the choir. The choir director was very firm in the desire to let anyone sing in the choir that had a desire to do so. They went up to the front to close the meeting. About 15 women and 5 men went up to the front. Along with them was "Ceazar", a 30 year old handi-capped hispanic man. They sang " If I could Hie to Kolob. I love that song. At first I was a little confused why they let Ceazar sing with them. Many would say that he ruined the whole song. But then I realized he was up there praising the Lord with his song, with all his might, and all of a sudden I was very humbled and grateful to know that the Lord is not a respector of persons. He loves all of us equally, and a song of praise is like a prayer unto him. And the performance became a very spiritual moment for me and Doug. You could hear Ceazar's voice over all the other choir members. It was like they were his back up singers. It was awesome to see how the members of that ward had loved Ceazar into that ward family. They looked beyond his handi-cap and choose to love him and help him. It will be a very cherished memory of my mission experience. I will always think of Ceazar when ever I sing or hear that song.