Story: Caedmon's song
Caedmon was a monk and cowherd, but God gave him a special song to sing (a true story)
Quite often God chooses totally unexpected people to do some work. Often, the people God chooses are afraid, at least at first, that they won't be able to manage it.
A long time ago, in the Abbey at Whitby in the North of England, the monks used to play instruments and sing songs after the evening meal. Caedmon would listen and then creep off to his bed in the cowshed, sad because he was unable to join in and do the same.
One night in his sleep Caedmon heard a voice telling him to sing. 'What shall I sing?' he asked. 'Sing about the Creation,' was the reply.
'But I'm only a cowherd,' he said.
Yet the voice insisted. So Caedmon began and he found lovely words and music coming out of his mouth.
The following morning he was taken before the Abbess Hilda. She asked to hear him, and Caedmon found he was able to repeat the beautiful hymn. He himself was amazed.
'God has given you a wonderful gift which you can use to tell other people about God making the world and everything in it,' said Hilda.
However little we think of ourselves and our skills, God can use any of us, just as Caedmon, a lowly cowherd was used to sing a special song, in a story that has lasted for centuries and come down to us today.