But Always, There is Music

by: Chrissy Muhr

Sometimes there are words. Sometimes silence. But always, there is music. And I’ve found, especially recently, that this is the image of God that resonates with me.

God as music: the Father composes, the Son conducts, the Spirit enables, and the music flows.

This God music strums the strings of creation, hums through my experience, shapes and shares truth in the voices of a human choir – my friends and neighbors. God doesn’t just speak to me, he sings to my condition.

Listen.

Sometimes the music is loud. Sometimes it fades into the background of my living. Sometimes the words challenge my thinking. Sometimes the melody moves my emotions. Sometimes I can feel the beat.

I am not silent. Not simply a member of a hushed audience awed by the creation of others. No, I am intimately involved in this thing, as I, too, am an instrument. God sings through me.

And I’m no soloist; I’m part of an orchestra, a choir. I listen to the music others make so that I might move in harmony with it.

We don’t do this so well. There are wrong notes. Lost beats. Missed entrances. But God continues to conduct, to put the notes on the page, and what we make together can be beautiful.