“Music is the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life.”  ~Ludwig van Beethoven

It’s not every day that we have a guest in our home that began life in the late 1700’s. This particular guest came to us broken, a beautiful instrument that had been nearly destroyed by pressure, strain, use and I have to believe neglect (well, it is over two hundred years old!).

As I stood watching my Love work, I had an epiphany.  I grabbed my camera and began shooting, thinking:

~how abused we become over time if we aren’t taken care of

~there is always hope, even if we can’t see it

~we need friends to help us

~how beautiful we really are, even in our brokenness

I heard ‘HOPE’ over and over in my head as my Love worked all day on that upright bass.

We had another guest that day: our Caleb. When he saw the bass, he was awed.  He came just when Jef was putting the bridge back together, so he assisted him.  But they heard this ‘clanging’ sound from the inside so they worked to get it out.  It was a small dowel.  What they didn’t know was that the dowel is actually the ‘sound post’ and is integral to the performance of the instrument.

I was dumbfounded when I thought about how valuable this little piece of wood is in correlation to the Holy Spirit in the life of a person.  I only resonate real ‘sound’ when I allow God to tune me and that has to take place on the inside before it can flow out.

But setting the sound post in properly takes patience.  Much patience and time. What if he had given up on ever getting it set?

Again, I saw how God has never given up on me.  He saw the melody my life would become as he relentlessly pursued me in my brokenness.

Obviously, Eugene knows the value of his bass or he wouldn’t continue to work on it.  After many tries, he got the sound post set and he and his bass left, but not until he’d played it a little bit.

What an honor to host a guest that taught me a lesson I hadn’t planned on.

May all our guests be so wonderful.