A Whisper

Song & Original Writing · Written by Sean Michaelson · December 23, 2025

Original Writing

Reaching out to You, I raise my arms in praise, hands trembling toward heaven as I seek the embrace of Your divine grace.

I speak to You in the only way I know how, bearing every truth I have, beautiful and haunting alike. Nothing needs to be hidden between us now. I have spent too much of my life wondering if You could see me to hide from You anymore.

There was a little boy once who sang a question he carried everywhere:

Heavenly Father, are You really there?

He meant it.

God, he meant it.

So many nights I searched for You in the silence, waiting for something to answer. I couldn’t hear You, and in the loneliness of childhood I came to believe that silence meant absence.

It would take me years to understand the difference.

I can still feel that old friendship bracelet around my wrist. Abe gave it to me when we were little, and somehow I kept wearing it long after our childhood together had passed. It followed me all the way through high school until there was almost nothing left of it and the final threads simply disintegrated away.

There were so many things like that bracelet that I didn’t understand at the time.

When the world became somewhere I didn’t know how to survive, I could disappear into my imagination. My Care Bears became more than toys and fantasy became somewhere safe enough for me to breathe. There were also people who found their way into my life when I needed kindness. Some stayed longer than others. Some probably never knew what their kindness meant to me. Abe was one of them. So were Jane and Jack, Rusty, Daniel, Billy and Mrs. Lund. And still I asked You,

Are You really there?

I didn’t know I was asking while surrounded by answers.

Years later, darkness brought me to the edge of a mountain, staring across a black lake toward a light burning in the distance. Beneath everything I had screamed and everything I thought I had lost, that same little boy was still somewhere inside me asking the same question.

Are You really there?

That night, something inside me finally became quiet enough to hear what perhaps You had been saying all along.

Yes.

I couldn’t have known then what the years ahead would bring. I didn’t know that people would help me walk into the darkest places inside myself and somehow find my way back out. I couldn’t imagine the woman who would become my wife, or that someday there would be children who would call me Dad. I certainly couldn’t imagine standing inside a home of my own, looking at a life I once wasn’t sure I would survive long enough to have.

When I look backward now, I understand the footprints differently.

There were times I was certain I was walking alone. There were times I wasn’t even sure I was walking anymore.

Yet somehow, here I am.

Maybe that is why raising my arms to You feels different now. I’m no longer the little boy begging heaven to answer me, and I’m no longer that seventeen-year-old raging through the darkness because he believed You had forgotten him.

I’m simply here before You, finally able to say thank You.

Thank You for hearing me when I couldn’t hear You.

Thank You for answering prayers I had mistaken for silence.

Thank You for loving a little boy who couldn’t understand why his God seemed so far away, and for staying close enough that one day he would finally be able to look backward and recognize You.

Because I recognize You now. You were in that bracelet wrapped around my wrist. You were somewhere inside those imaginary worlds that gave me somewhere safe to go. Your love reached me through ordinary people who stopped long enough to be kind, and years later it reached me through people who helped me begin putting the broken pieces of myself back together.

You were there on the mountain when I screamed at You, and You were still there when all I could manage was a whisper:

Hello God… I love You too.

And You are here now.

The world grows quiet around me. My hands still tremble as everything I am lies open before You, every beautiful and haunting truth, and for once I don’t feel the need to make myself worthy of Your gaze.

I simply let You see me.

In that silent, delicate, vulnerable place, a whisper floats across the wind and over sparkling waters of hope.

I know that whisper now.

I know Your answer.

Child, I am here.

You are beautiful and loved. My precious one, don’t you know how deeply you are loved? You are Mine, created and anointed by Me. You are a prince of the Most High, cherished and never alone.

I was there when you couldn’t hear Me. I was there when you couldn’t see Me, and I am here now.

I will always have you.

You are My son.

My arms remain raised as those words settle into me.

The little boy’s question has followed me for most of my life, but somewhere along the way it stopped being a question.

Heavenly Father, are You really there?

Yes. You always were.

Song Lyrics

Verse 1

Reaching out to You, raised arms in praise,
Hands trembling outward, longing for grace.
I search for Your presence, here on my knees,
In the hush of my fear, I’m begging for peace.

Verse 2

Speaking to You the only way I know,
Every truth I carry, the light and the shadow.
I lay down my beauty, I lay down my scars,
Every haunted moment, every shining part.

Pre-Chorus

In this fragile stillness, stripped and undone,
I’m waiting in the quiet for Your voice to come.

Chorus

And a whisper rides the wind, over waters that gleam,
Sparking fragile hope inside of me.
I cling to love that never lets go,
Unconditional, steady, pulling me home.

Verse 3

In the silence You find me, broken yet whole,
Calling my name straight into my soul.
I hear You speaking, soft but true,
Every word alive, every promise new.
Bridge (Sung Softly)

Child… I am here.
You are beautiful.
You are loved.
My precious one, don’t you know
How deeply you are loved?
You are Mine.
Created, anointed, called by name.
A prince of the Most High,
Never forgotten, never alone.

Final Chorus

A whisper rides the wind, over waters of grace,
I see myself now through Your eyes of faith.
I cling to love that will not fade,
I am held forever, I am unafraid.

Outro

You are my son…
And I will always have you.

About the Music

The music and vocal performance for this song were generated using AI tools. The original writing and lyrics were written by me (Sean Michaelson). My hope is to someday collaborate with musicians and vocalists to bring these songs to life in a deeper and more personal way.