In my home church, there was a lady who sang professionally for many years. Before becoming a Christian, she sang jazz tunes and ballads in area clubs and bars. After her conversion, she gave up the bar scene and began singing for church. Someone got the bright idea that she could teach some of the teenagers to sing, and so I and others went to her home for a few voice lessons.

My voice lessons had previously come from trying to imitate Jim Morrison singing “Light My Fire” or Robert Plant belting out the last verse of “Stairway to Heaven.” Now, we were learning time signatures and singing “How Great Thou Art.”

She gave us tips, corrected our mistakes, and talked, among other things, about the relationship between the vocalist and the accompanist. The accompanist could make or break a song; move people toward ecstasy or move them toward the door.

God may be thought of as the ultimate Accompanist. That idea is extraordinary on many levels, not least that the Creator should accompany people like us! We do him no honor by performing with him; he does us great honor by performing with us. If I were to sing the Benedictus from the Mass in B minor, and somehow managed to get Macala Petri and Yo Yo Ma to accompany me, I would not be doing Petri and Ma any honor.

The truth is, I would be a black spot on their illustrious careers. But by agreeing to accompany me, they would be doing me great — and undeserved — honor. So, it is with the Divine Accompanist.

He knows how to accompany us. A good accompanist can go wherever the vocalist goes, anticipating highs and lows, slurred sixteenths and dotted half notes. A good accompanist is with the singer, helping him or her reach higher and go further than would otherwise be possible.

The following is from a website for professional singers: “The most rewarding association with an accompanist comes when they and the singer have time to build up a rapport. Working together on an arrangement by rehearsing and discussing ideas allows both parties to produce a well thought out and exciting program of music.”

That is true of us and the Divine Accompanist as well. We need to build a rapport with him. We need to work together on arrangements for our life, rehearse together, and discuss our ideas. He knows everything there is to know about how to perform in life, and he is willing to accompany us! We are rank amateurs, and yet he takes his place beside us, strikes the chord, and lets us sing.

And some of us have the audacity to think that we are doing God a favor. Or we try to strike bargains with him: “Lord, I’ll sing for you, but you have to give me a new arrangement of the material. This one is not what I wanted; it will never do!” If it were not for the “tender mercy of our God,” what would become of us?

It is especially apropos during this season of Advent to remember that God is our accompanist. He is with us. He is with us when life is high and when it goes low, when it speeds by like slurred sixteenth notes, and when it drags on like a dotted half. He is with us. His very name says so: He is “Immanuel” — God with us.

It is not only important that God is with us, but that we know he is with us. Being with God, and knowing that he is with us, brings courage, hope, and endurance: courage in the face of danger, hope in the jaws of despair, and endurance under the weight of duty. The most common reason given in the Bible for not being afraid is, again and again, “Do not be afraid for I am with you.” If he is not with us, or if we do not know that he is with us, we will not live courageous lives. We will not reach as high, or go as far, as we might.

For that, we need the Accompanist. We need Immanuel.

— Shayne Looper is a writer and speaker based in Coldwater, Michigan. Contact him at salooper57@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Shayne Looper: Finding harmony in life with the divine accompanist