Do You Hear What I Hear?
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Listen to the audio on our Podcast | Read time 4-minutes
One of the first things that alert us to the Christmas season is often the Christmas music being piped in during our shopping excursions. These age-old melodies are the soundtrack to so many memories throughout the years, and I think you’ll come to a greater appreciation for the soundtrack of our lives through Gloria’s words in, “Do You Hear What I Hear?”, the seventh episode of our series, “Grow Your Faith”.
I grew up in a musical family and learned from a very young age to appreciate music and the talent of musicians. Because I watched and listened while my older siblings learned how to play their instruments, I learned that oftentimes starting musicians make some very unpleasant sounds. But with a lot of practice, those sounds eventually become familiar melodies and eventually turn into something beautiful.
Merry Melodies
The past couple of days I’ve been enjoying listening to the great soundtracks of some Christmas movies such as The Polar Express, The Grinch, and Home Alone.
It’s so fun listening to these familiar songs but I’ve grown to appreciate them so much more on their own without the movie imagery and dialog.
I’ve watched these movies many times but it’s as if I’m hearing parts of these brilliantly composed musical scores for the first time.
I love hearing how the music is laced together with the main melody for each movie. Often it pops up with different instrumentation in several places throughout the soundtrack.
For example, in Home Alone we hear the very familiar melody of “Carol of the Bells” but if you listen closely we can also hear the opening melody of the movie.
The Spirit’s Soundtrack
Even if you’ve never thought about a movie soundtrack before, I’m sure you’ve had the sense that something bad was going to happen, and you’ve wanted to warn the main character that the bad guy is coming.
Have you wondered why you sensed something intense was coming? It was most likely the tone of the music that gave it away.
Similarly, if we train our spiritual ears to know what we’re listening for, we can hear Holy Spirit’s warning or His “soundtrack” that fills us with delight and excitement during the joyful scenes in our lives.
God is so brilliant in the way He composes and orchestrates the events we experience. We just need to know what to listen for in order to truly appreciate the interlacing of His “melody” into every aspect of our lives.
Listening for the Melody
In 1 Kings 19:11-13, we read a story about Elijah being instructed by God to go stand on the mountain and wait for the Lord to pass by. There was a great wind that tore through the mountains but the Lord wasn’t in the wind. Then an earthquake but the Lord wasn’t in that either. After that, there is a fire but again the Lord was not in the fire.
“…And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his coak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?'”
1 kings 19:12-13, niv
Elijah knew what he was listening for. He’d spent time with God and knew His voice and His familiar “melody” as a gentle whisper.
This Christmas season, I encourage you to take some time and turn off the distractions of the media dialog and worldly imagery to focus your attention to appreciate God’s beautiful attention to details in the melody of your life.
Wait with anticipation for Him.
Listen closely to hear His still small voice and the special love and affection He has for you.
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