Up the Sunbeam

-- The energy in the room changed dramatically. The entire audience seemed to feel it and sit up a little straighter in their seats with anticipation. Intermission was over and the band my son assembled to perform some of his original songs in a concert at his college was about to play--the debut performance of Jordan Friday and the Beautiful Romance! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Being on a college campus, the concert up to this point had been an eclectic mix of musical styles, varied cultures and lyrical content. There had been . . . . . . profanity-laced rap and hip hop . . . . . . some nice acoustic guitar work punctuated with angst and anger, lyrics about men reverting back to apes and violent rituals and despair . . . . . . and finally, my first introduction to a live performance by a screamo death metal band--lots of rage, frenzy, desperation, writhing on the floor and sounds I didn't know human voices could make "singing" words I think I'm glad were unint...

Melody rises and falls like a mountain road. Harmony weaves above and below. A sequence of notes, nothing more. Nothing more? SO MUCH MORE! On that sequenc e of notes ride whole worlds of truth and insight! I am t r ansported! One moment driving, doing dishes, walking, fretting--but when the melody starts, hea v e n enters my oh-so-ordinary moment, reminding me of wisdom I cannot live without. On vinyl with crackles and scratches to mark the wear and t ear of countless plays, the old songs stay with me. In digital form, clean and clear, the old and new can accompany me wherever I am. There is something supe rn atural that God built into music --He designed it t o lend a certain something special to the words wrap p ed within its notes. I am so often amazed at the t hings God did in creation that He didn't have to do. What would the world be like without the sound of music? Where would my faith be without music, without song? I would love to know how much...

-- The mallets touch the cymba l, b arely moving at first, then rising higher and faster with each repetition until the cymbal sing s out in a crescendo of sound. I have come to love percussion, all the more because I've learned to single it out in the listening because of Drummer-Boy, who came to the world with percussion in his soul. A cymbal is a beautiful instrume nt, both to look at and to hear--it can be a tinkling timepiece or a crashing splash of sound, a metallic accent, or the clanging main event. Did you ever notice that a cymbal is silent until the drummer strikes it? Something has to happen to make it vibrate and send sound waves through space. It can't ring of its own accord. There is more music in my home. She-So-Sweet sets her bo w o n v iolin strings and calls from them the sweetest music. Her music can make you laugh, break your heart or set your spirit to glorious flights of fancy. Sometimes my heart nearly aches with the beauty of it. As l...