God's Symphony

Jettie and I continue to be in a pitched battle, so this will again be brief. As I mentioned last week, I hardly feel qualified to write anything at this point, sort of like the great church father, Augustine as he lay dying. It is said that he caught a glimpse of heaven before he finally passed on and upon catching that glimpse said of all his writing: "It's just straw, just straw!" So here's my offering of straw for this week.

"But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body." (I Corinthians 12:18-20 NIV)

I have pondered for quite some time the wonder of God's symphony: His arrangement of His people in a way that creates beautiful music when each part finds the joy and freedom of simply playing his/her part in the musical score. Paul describes this symphony in the quote above in terms of the Body of Christ--a better metaphor than a symphony for sure, but looking at Christ's body as a collection of musical instruments has helped me see some things that I had missed before. Let me elaborate a bit.

In a symphony, each instrument is unique (even those of the same type) and adds its own unique sound to the music. And a truly beautiful score requires all of the instruments to play at some point or another, sometimes together, sometimes individually. Each instrument can and gets to play only the part made especially for it: a tuba cannot play the flute's part, the cymbal cannot play the clarinet's part, etc. And when all the instruments are playing their parts according to the direction of the conductor, the result is truly beautiful music--a symphony that brings joy to those who hear and honor to the Conductor and Composer!

I am writing in a metaphor, of course, but here's the bottom line for all of us: First, no one else can play your part! God has designed you in a wonderfully unique way and reserved a part in His symphony that only you can fill. His symphony is diminished if your unique part isn't played. This tells us all just how truly significant each of is in God's musical score. Second, you don't have to play anyone else's part. How liberating is that thought?! Instead of wishing you were something else or striving to be something you were not created to be, you get to be you as God intended. Third, the Conductor can be trusted to show you how and when your part is to be played. (The jazz-loving part of me believes that this might include some improvisation, but I will save that for a later blog--for now, just know that you can trust the Holy Spirit to lead you in a way that liberates you to play wonderfully in God's symphony.

That's it. Maybe a bit fuzzy, but I hope to have conveyed in some small way how treasured and important you are in God's grand scheme of things! And that in turn, hopefully, will help you treasure others as well.

Listening for the next note...

Tom, one of Abba's children