Sunday, December 23, 2012

Xmas Hymn #416

I was so happy to be back playing guitar at church this week!

Work and travel had kept me away the previous two weeks.
Sometimes I just breathe an "ahhhhhh...." to be back sharing music, especially with our stellar music director/keyboardist.

On some Sunday's she leaves the offertory song listed as "instrumental" and simply plays a piano or organ piece, which I really enjoy listening (or praying) to.   We also team up and play piano-guitar duets if a particular song has elements that favor our instruments (i.e., not too many sharps or flats for the guitar player). On this Sunday we didn't have a song picked, so she would play a piano piece.

But as I listened to the sermon, I really felt moved to add some worship music.  I picked up my hymn book, still opened to #412, the previous song.
Now realize, that immediately following the 10 - 15 minute sermon is our offertory....not a lot of time to choose new music and run it by my co-laborer and keyboardist in Christ!

A quick, silent prayer...."Lord, would you have anything in mind for us to play?"
The very quietest of Holy Spirit-nudges moved me to flip the pages forward (and not backward, though I can't explain how that was clear to me).
Somewhere in the background, as I began studying key signatures and chord structure, I heard some of the pastor's sermon.  :-)      He was speaking of God's ability to surprise us.  We can't put God in a box of our own expectations, limiting what we believe He can accomplish. He is God after all.

Or something along those lines, I only had a few minutes left to look at music!

When I got to Hymn #416, it looked like it had good possibilities...chords and melody that I could sight-read (our music director can play anything!), and enough variety in the verse and chorus to give us something interesting to work with as an instrumental.
But now there were literally only minutes to spare. I had to stand up and walk out the side door to get back to the choir room and ask her.  I waffled there in my chair for a few moments - was this really a good idea?  But yes, I really sensed a Godly inspiration to do this.

At that very moment, our music director walked back in and handed me a note on her way back to the piano. Without reading it, I lifted up the hymnal and started pointing....I mouthed a few words...."I think I found a song" and she just pointed back to her note in my hand...all this as the pastor's post-sermon prayers were in progress before the offertory.

The handwritten note from our music director simply said.....   "Hymn #416."

And we offered up some beautiful music to God.
"With man this is not possible, but with God, all things are possible."  Matthew 19:26

What do you believe?


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