After the concert Sunday night we drove around Southaven, Mississippi looking for a place to eat and watch some football. I find the best way to soak up after-performance adrenaline and settle my nerves before bed is to inhale a large serving of chips and queso – so the search was on.

And Ann texted asking if I would be at Allume in a few days in time to hear her speak.

Of course.

About the time the chips arrived…

Know a worship song about stars?

And a back and forth began – me pitching songs, her Googling the lyrics. And then bits of her message arrived – or fragments that would become her message.

Stars in the universe for His glory – Philippians 2:12-18

We are already known by Him…

Stars are only known to be a map, a pointer in the sky…

She landed on a song we both liked. We said goodnight. I finished my chips and headed off to bed.

The chips and texts and Holy Spirit (which was probably in the queso) mingled as I slept and…

And I woke the next morning with a song playing in my mind the whole drive home. Three hours winding from Mississippi to Nashville. I couldn’t make out the words – just a phrase or two captured with pen on a napkin. But the melody was as clear as could be, like a radio was on in my head. I sang along mile after mile, shaping the phrases slightly with each pass.

The plumber met me at the front door and while he went to work unclogging neglected drains I sat on the couch with my guitar and did something work and children and life cause me to neglect: I wrote. I had to. And I haven’t felt I had to in such a long time.

And when the kids went to bed that night I wrote some more – trying words to find the fit. And the next morning. And that night. And a moment here and there the next day too and…eleven drafts later it was done…or as done as any song ever feels in the end.

A hymn. In 7/4 time.

It felt good. The thing I like best about writing songs? On the best days I feel like I’m not in control. It’s terrifying and exhilarating, half “Wow!” and half “Ahhhhhhh!” Feeling that I’m possessed by the song, that it’s coming through me and it’s better than me, greater than the sum of my talent and time.

Thanks for sending that text, Ann. And thank you, God, for making something out of nothing and sending it into darkness to shine.

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Maker Of The Starry Sky
Words & Music by Shaun Groves

Maker of the starry sky
When all was void and formless
With a word you spoke the light
Set diamonds in the darkness
To God the Father, God the Son
God the Spirit, Three in One
Gratitude and glory be
Sung by every galaxy

Maker of the starry sky
When I was hid in darkness
With your hands you wove my life
You made me in your likeness
To God the Father, God the Son
God the Spirit, Three in One
Gratitude and glory be
Sung by every breath in me

Maker of the starry sky
When all is bleak and broken
With your pow’r through us make bright
When love is lived and spoken
To God the Father, God the Son
God the Spirit, Three in One
Gratitude and glory be
Sung by every soul set free

To God the Father, God the Son
God the Spirit, Three in One
Gratitude and glory be
Sung by all you made to gleam
Like diamonds in the darkness
Diamonds in the darkness