A Symphony

Have you been to the symphony recently? Have you attended a Broadway production? A Broadway show is one of my favorite joys. I love to dress up for the event and arrive early just to watch the crowd and see the theatre begin to come alive. The crowd comes in talking and laughing and looking for seats. Soon, very soon, the orchestra begins their pre-show ritual. And now, we’re to my favorite, favorite time of the evening. The flutes, the cello, violins, brass, and piano – they all begin to loosen up, to tune up, all playing different notes, adhering to their own personal warm-up session. Do you hear them? Then finally…..tap, tap, tap….silence. And the overture begins, perfectly in harmony and purpose for each instrument. Beautiful.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Revelation 7:9

A symphony of people will be standing before the throne of God. Among these people are those who have yet to know the unconditional love of God. Today, in my city there are those who do not know of this Love, they’ve never heard and they’ve never seen it lived.
Will I live the Love today? Will I stop my busy life long enough to unconditionally love one person who is hard to love, who looks different from me, who has a hard time speaking English? I will see them at the throne one day; will I love them today?

A few weeks ago in English class, we were practicing prose. As the Chinese students read aloud I was listening to their English and helping them correct pronunciation problems. We were in a small group of 6 and huddled together in order to hear each other. When a troublesome word would come up for one student, I’d noticed that all the students begin to repeat it, mimic my pronunciation, and before long all were practicing the word. On this day, we were using prose from the most famous Book of all, the Bible. As one student read, he stumbled and pronounced a word, “Jesirs”. We began to work on the word….Je…..sus. Listen well as there is no R in the pronunciation, I said. So again, Je…..sus. Je….sus.
All around me, the pronunciation spread…..the practice…..Je….sus, Jesus, Jesus they repeated over and over again. I closed my eyes and just listened. A symphony, a tune up as they had no idea of the name they called that day. But He heard them and knows them by name…..can I love someone today like Je…..sus loves me?