The Gift of Music
Paris, Texas boasts one of the few municipal bands in the land. My husband, Russ, played baritone for the band, and he found rehearsals and performances both a challenge and a joy. We enjoyed spending our summer going to the open-air concerts.
Dinner guests were entertained on the front porch of our 1917 prairie-style home. Then we walked the short distance to Bywaters Park. It was encouraging to see the park full of concertgoers relaxing in lawn chairs while anticipating an evening of entertainment! The band selections did not disappoint us. Each one tickled our ears in different ways. Some touched hearts. Some lifted faces with smiles. Others inspired toe tapping.
I was touched by the gift of music from God. Our ears are privileged to hear such glorious sounds! The beauty of the night permeated the air of Bywaters Park. How enjoyable to hear the birds and the locusts sing along with the band. At one point it was if a mockingbird, which was perched atop a tree in the spotlight, attempted to imitate what he heard from the peristyle! The fireflies lit up the air in rhythm to the music with their Morse code signals.
The final triumph was when a young boy, totally enamored by the sounds of the night, stood up and marched directly to the front of the peristyle. From there he looked up into the band and for a moment seemed to consider joining them. But then, as if resigned to his part in the performance, determined rather to march back and forth in front of the band. So caught up by the music—he didn’t realize he was separated from his family. Oh that we would all allow music to transport us to another place—a safe place full of glorious sounds and rhythms!
May we all acknowledge the simple gifts God gives us each and every day. Often it only takes looking around us to see them, such as the fireflies. Other times we must close our eyes and listen. What do we hear? And finally, sometimes it takes having the childlike innocence of this little boy, to be totally wrapped up in the things of God.
AUTHOR QUOTE: Let yourself get so focused on the blessings of God that you become oblivious to all else around you.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,” James 1:17 KJV.
Today’s devotion is by Kathy Carlton Willis, wife to Russ, pastor’s wife to many, author, editor, publicist and speaker. Kathy Carlton Willis Communications encompasses her many passions. Learn more at: http://kcwcomm.blogspot.com/ or http://www.kathycarltonwillis.com/.
