The Father Who Sang in the NICU

When Marcus and Elena Torres brought their twin daughters home from Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Marcus couldn't stop humming. For forty-seven days in the NICU, he had stood over two incubators, each holding a baby barely larger than his hand, and he had sung. Not well — Marcus would be the first to tell you he can't carry a tune. But every morning before his shift at the refinery and every evening after, he pressed his face close to the warm plastic and sang hymns his grandmother taught him, old corridos his mother loved, and sometimes just made-up melodies with his daughters' names woven through them.

The nurses told Elena that the babies' heart rates steadied when he sang. Their oxygen levels improved. Something about a father's low voice, they said, vibrates at just the right frequency to calm a newborn's nervous system.

Marcus wasn't singing because the danger had passed. He sang while the monitors still beeped their warnings. He sang through the setbacks and the frightening nights. He sang because his daughters were his, and his love was bigger than his fear.

Zephaniah 3:17 tells us the Almighty does the same for His people. The LORD your God is in your midst — not distant, not indifferent, but right here, bending close. And He rejoices over you with singing. Not because everything is fixed, but because you are His. The God who holds galaxies together quiets your anxious heart with a love song only He can sing.