Forrest told me about this the other night (I was not here for nighttime devotions on Monday) but after reading the Gospel lesson, he always asks the kids questions about what happened in the reading. Well, it was about Jesus blessing the little children, and about the rich young ruler.
So Forrest says, "David, did Jesus bless the little children?"
Timothy: "Yes," then noticing he wasn't supposed to answer, says, "Errr..."
David: "Yes," then seeing that Timothy seemed unsure, says, "Or, no."
Then Forrest asked, "Timothy, what did Jesus tell the rich young man to do?"
Timothy: "Um...sell all his stuff to the poor!"
Today I saw a license plate wrap-around that said, "I'd rather be playing H2O Polo". Funny thing is, the first thing that came to my mind upon reading it was,
"Marco!"
"Polo!"
I heard a string quartet on the radio, and the lovely sound of horsehair pulling across strings compelled me to keep listening. Normally if I come across classical music I'll change the station to something singable...or at least that I can move to. But I was reminded how much I love string quartets--listening to, and playing in, them. It occurred to me that it's been ten whole years since I went to my first of two string quartet day camps that I enjoyed so much. Okay, the first year was a little bit of a challenge--we played a quartet by--I can't remember, was it Brahms?--that was pretty hard already, but then the cellist struggled with the rhythm and yet was insistent upon the way she thought it was supposed to go. But other than that small aspect, the whole camp was a lot of fun and education. The second year was even better. Rachel and I were in the same quartet, played a not-too-complicated piece by Mozart, I think? and the other members of the quartet were good, plus easy to get along with. Anyway...good memories. I feel I should thank the members of Syringa String Quartet for doing the day camp because it was such a great opportunity. Maybe someday I can participate in a quartet again.
So later I changed the station when this piece was over, and tuned into KMBI. Well, they played "We lay our crowns", done by someone. Don't remember the name. Okay, I really like this song...but am used to hearing Kutless sing it. This version was more the...how do I put it?...upbeat, feel good, chorusy, with a saxophone solo in the middle. Bleh. Just not my style. But I got to thinking...how could that be any less or any more pleasing to God, than the Kutless version? Or, than any other song that we come up with to praise God? I personally think, while you don't have to like a musical style of any given Christian musician, you can at least appreciate the fact that they didn't do it for you--they did it firstly for God because they love Him. As imperfect as we are at our praising and glorifying Him, He still sees it through His love for us, and our love for Him. He's not nitpicky like us, I think. Who knows if God has musical taste, the way we do??
Anyway...I was wondering if it wouldn't be too far-fetched to think of the different music we offer to our Saviour as a gift a small child gives his parent. The child gives it thinking, "I just LOVE this--so I know they will too!!" And the parent, while it may not be what he would have picked out himself, receives it as the most wonderful gift he could get from his child, because of the spirit in which it was given, and also because, if it's important to the child, it's important to the parent. Thoughts??
While it's not been easy to get used to Forrest's new schedule of working 5 days a week, average of 10-12 hours a day (and the majority are above-average), I am especially thankful for two things: 1) he's a lot less stressed out, since he is actually able to service his customers when he needs to, and 2) I just realized this today: he's never gone overnight! Although he has to still go to Montana, his routes there are so big now that it's virtually impossible for him to get it all done in one trip. This does mean more long days, but it also means he's home every night.
And now he's home so bye :)
