Under the Piano

My mother is such a good pianist.  She can play anything and she can do it so amazingly well.  I’ve always been proud to be her son for so many reasons and one of these many reasons is her mastery of the piano.  If fact, some of my fondest memories are under the piano.  It was under the piano that I first heard Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, Chopin, and Bach.

Probably the most moving of these experiences was the hymns.  I don’t know if it was my connection or my mom’s connection with God.  Maybe it was both of these.  You see music truly is the language of the soul and when you put words with the music it adds a new dimension to what the music means to you.  How can you not be moved by words like, “just as I am without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me . . . ?”  The God of the universe loved a sorry messed up person like me so much that He gave His only precious Son so that He could have me safe with Him and He takes me just as I am.  I don’t have to change before He will take me.  Once I surrender to Him, He will change me from the inside out - just like He fashioned me in my mother’s womb so He fashions me from inside my heart to make me more like Him.

“Amazing grace how sweat the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”  Oh how much I see since accepting God and His gift for me.  It was in my parents that I first saw the truth of God.  They are living testaments of what it means to be Christian.

One of the ways that this was manifested to me was through my mom’s dedication during the early years of her lupus.  It wasn’t just that she would continue to play in church when she did not feel like doing it but that she would do it with such emotion and love.  I knew that she was hurting but on her face shone the smile of Jesus and in her eyes was the love of God and through her hands was found the power of the Holy Spirit.

Some memories are stronger than others but few are as sweet as those I found under the piano.  So, when times get hard mom and her piano make for wonderful encouragement. 

“Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.”

-Philippians 2:1 & 2