As we shuffled into our seats in the cool church auditorium, the people around us rose to the steady beat of the drums that made the ground vibrate, with the deep bass chords joining seconds in. Soon, the elegant piano joined, the strumming of the guitar hummed its tune, and finally the lead singer above outstretched her hands to the audience, reaching for the rest of the crowd to join her praise. Despite how large the auditorium room was, the melody of the worship team above was not enough to fill the auditorium; it was missing its other half – the audience's euphonious voice. But the audience’s faint voices weren’t strong enough to fill the auditorium up. The room sounded empty even.
Then a creaking voice emerged beside me forcing me to cringe at the change of the quiet harmonies that surrounded me. The church’s lofty auditorium began to appear more complete. Aware of the culprit, I turned slowly to my right and observed my dad singing vicariously at the top of his lungs, care-free about how off-key he sang. His eyes were full of passion as he stared up onto stage, and the singer above spotted the voice that stood out and smiled at us, encouraging him to continue.
With his projected voice carried out throughout the auditorium, the people around us shifted their gaze briefly at us. Oh, Lord. A part of me wanted to use my index fingers to plug my ears, but even then, I don’t think that could even stop the noise coming from his mouth. Instead, I tried my best to embrace my dad’s confident melody and took the slightest step left towards my little sister, and threw her a glance, eyebrows raised in terror. She looked at me then back at my dad and then a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, stifling in a laugh.
Despite my dad’s out of tune voice that stood out, my dad was confident and his love was unwavering compared to the other voices that meekly sang, afraid that we were singing out of tune. Even as I sang in the auditorium, my voice never projected as loudly, because I feared what others may think. But watching my dad sing week by week with the voice of a lion that was off key, fearless of what others may think, reminds me that his melody was the only perfect one within the crowd of followers.
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