Instrumental

 March 23, 2022

Tonight at our Lenten dinner and Bible study, a video by Max Lucado told the story of a man who vowed never again to play his trumpet after playing taps at his son’s funeral. But his daughter-in-law was pregnant at the time, and now twenty years later, his granddaughter wanted him to play for her wedding—a request any grandparent knows can’t be refused.

So he took his old instrument to the repair shop where the master craftsman hammered out the dents, freed up the valves, and polished it till it shone. As I listened to this story, it occurred to me that the instrument can play songs of sadness or joy. It can only do what the music and the musician determine. The music determines the melody, the instrument the tone, but it is the musician who determines the soul, taking notes on paper and translating them into music that swells and recedes, carrying aloft the emotion and intensity of the song.

We are instruments in God’s hand. He wrote the music, and is the conductor of the orchestra. We play with all the intensity and love, the gravitas and joy that is in his own heart. We provide the subtle and varied tones, from the reedy clarinets, oboes, saxophones, and bassoons, to the brassy tubas, trombones, euphoniums, and trumpets. There are the soft notes of the flutes, the rattle of the snares, the chords and runs of the piano, the sweeping sweetness of violins, cellos, and basses. Each instrument contributes a different timbre, a different feel to the music, but the performance is the work of the Composer/Conductor, and elicits the praise of all Creation. 

Isn’t it amazing that we get to play our part, contributing to the symphony that was in the Father’s heart, written in the blood of his Son, and moved by the wind of the Spirit in us!