Monday's Musing

Music has long been an important part of my life. I've played piano, taking lessons from 3rd grade through high school. I sang in the school choir and at church. In junior high, I learned how to play clarinet, but couldn't fit band into my high school schedule and quit playing it. I've taught myself a little guitar and most recently a little mandolin as well. I love music. I love how it can really speak to one's soul. But lately, I've found that music {at least when it comes to just listening to songs on the radio or my old cds} doesn't give me the same soul satisfaction that it used to. I can remember playing CDs and dancing with Bubba when he was a baby. And we still do stuff like that. Just not as often. We listen to The Message radio channel {SiriusXM} in our van. And I enjoy it. But in my home, I don't listen to CDs like I used to.

Perhaps I've just gotten bored with my old CDs. Perhaps the difficulty of secondary infertility has somehow changed how I feel about music. Whatever the reason, no music has really sparked my interest or screamed "Buy me!" for a very long time. Not until last Friday that is.

That's when I heard a song on The Message that struck a chord in my soul. I absolutely LOVED it! It's called "Your Hands" by JJ Heller. I'd never heard any of her songs before this. This song was so beautiful and the lyrics were so real. If you're interested, you can hear it here on JJ's myspace page. I highly recommend it.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Messages from The Message!

Ever since listening to Sisterchicks Do The Hula by Robin Jones Gunn (I finished this audiobook last week while knitting!), I've been pondering some of the verses she quotes in the story from The Message (a contemporary Bible version by Eugene H. Peterson).

One verse in particular has become one of my new faves:

Psalm 32:7
God's my island hideaway,
keeps danger far from the shore,
throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.

my island hideaway on maui

I love the mental picture I get now when I read this. I suppose it's partly because I've been to Maui less than a year ago, but I think it's also because of how the character in the book takes time to explore the deeper meaning of these words as well. In Hawaii, a lei is a garland that is placed around someone's neck. If I understand correctly, they used to be made by one person to give to another. Each one also tells a story. What a beautiful picture of God making me my own unique story-lei and placing it around my neck like a cherished garland of hosannas! Wow!

a garland of hosannas!

Just today I read another verse in the Psalms (also from The Message) that was, for me at least, quite poignant.

Psalm 16:11b
Ever since you took my hand,
I'm on the right way.
As a mother, I'm often grabbing my kids' hands. Usually I do this to keep them from harm or to get them to go in the same direction I'm going. In the same way, I can see now that God takes hold of my hand and guides me along life's pathways--the way He desires for me to go. As long as I don't let go and run away in my own direction, like disobedient children sometimes do, He promises to guide me, protect me, and take care of my needs along the way. Isn't that wonderful?