One of my favorite bands--Christian or otherwise--is Casting Crowns. I have been listening to their new CD (The Altar and the Door) for several weeks the way I always listen to CDs--clicking around using the control buttons. I hardly ever let a CD just play. Control freak I am, oh-yes-indeed.
Thankfully, a few days ago, I had this particular CD playing in the car, and for whatever reason, I was letting it run its course.
Thank goodness.
Because when you play The Altar and the Door that way, then (and only then) can you hear the track that Casting Crowns has "hidden" a couple of minutes behind track 10. It's called "White Dove Fly High", and I don't quite know how to describe this song to you. Words fail me. When I heard it streaming into my car, my first thought was, "Why is Andrea Bocelli singing on a Casting Crowns CD?"
It's that beautiful. Haunting. Achingly exquisite.
So I ran home, eager to find out the story behind this unusual song. After a little Googling, I learned that in April of this year, Casting Crowns was invited to North Korea to sing at the Spring Friendship Festival. They peformed "White Dove Fly High" in both Korean and English. It's a prayer for peace.
Now, I'm no scholar of geopolitics, but I know enough to know that a Christian band inside North Korea is a very significant thing. What must it have been like for that little band of believers to join together in prayer inside a country that has been spiritually dark for so long?
Enough of the story--you really just need to hear the song. I found this slide show, made by one of the Casting Crowns band members. It takes a little while to buffer, but it's worth it.
Amen.
