‘Music is the invisible sound that releases the grip of obscure emotions’
If a picture paints one thousand words then a song can evoke a thousand memories!
Pachelbel’s Canon in D is one such song. The first time I remember hearing it was when I was a final year medical student holding a patient’s leg during a hip replacement in Dundee!I’m sure that this practice is no longer allowed as much for health & safety reasons, as limited educational value! But, while the surgeon operated back then, I was enchanted by the soothing music & decided that I would walk up the aisle to that tune.
I was disappointed to learn that my idea was not an original one- Canon in D has featured in the film ‘Father of the bride’ & countless other wedding ceremonies!
I did walk down the aisle to this special melody one week after graduating. And, years later I watched my children walk down another aisle as pageboy & flower girl when Linda & Graeme got married, accompanied by string quartet playing Pachelbel’s Canon.
I wouldn’t say that I’m a melomaniac i.e. someone with an overly great enthusiasm for music. But, I can still remember my heart thumping as we rose from our seats during the Hallelujah Chorus in the Waterfront Hall one Christmas BC (Before Children)
I can clearly recall deep feelings of gratitude that welled up deep inside as Casting Crowns sang ‘Praise You in the Storm’ at a concert a few years ago in Belfast. Similar feelings were evoked when I heard Rend Collective sing ‘Finally Free’ at their home church in Bangor.
There’s truth in these words:
‘Music is a piece of art that goes in the ears & straight to the heart’
‘Music is what feelings sound like.’
Last Christmas, a Spotify subscription helped bring flash-backs over 20yrs to tunes from the 80s & 90s.Aha & the Pet Shop Boys were streaming through the air waves at the touch of a screen!
A few Christmases ago, Santa brought Caris & Ethan original iPod shuffles in blue & pink. The shuffles were marketed as providing the soundtrack to life. That slogan made me think:
If life is our story- which music is the soundtrack?
*There’s a song to be seen
Creation proclaims God-songs day by day. Sunsets & bluebells, seascapes & mountain peaks, starlight & snowflakes:
‘Creation sings the Father’s song;
He calls the sun to wake the dawn
And run the course of day
Till evening falls in crimson rays.
His fingerprints in flakes of snow,
His breath upon this spinning globe’
(Keith Getty)
We, as God’s forgiven children also proclaim His songs:
‘He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.’
(Psalm 40:3 NIV)
Everyday, in our ordinary lives, we are a song to be seen.
‘Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.’
(Romans 12:1-the Message)
As Casting Crowns’ pray:
‘May my life-song sing to you’
Or, as Robert Robinson wrote in 1757:
‘Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise’
*There’s a song to be heard:
If we still our souls, we will hear the song God is singing over us:
‘For the LORD your God is living among you.
He is a mighty saviour.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
With his love, he will calm all your fears.
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.’
(Zephaniah 3:17 NLT)
‘The Lord will send His faithful love by day;
His song will be with me in the night-a prayer to the God of my life.’
(Psalms 42:8 HCSB)
As we listen to the soundtrack of our life, our heart’s desire should be:
‘Stir in me the songs that you are singing’ (Stuart Townend)
God’s song inspires us to sing even when we don’t feel like it.
‘A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song’
(Maya Angelou)
And our song is our God:
‘The LORD is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him-my father’s God, and I will exalt him! (Exodus 15:2 NLT)
‘My heart, O God, is steadfast,
my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and make music.
I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.’
(Psalm 57: 7& 10)
Selah
Blessings,
Ruth x
PS Listen to ‘Singing over me‘ (Kari Jobe)
*Edited from post originally posted at http://www.blessedme.co.uk
Blessed! 