The Soundtrack of my Life

The Soundtrack of my Life

          Do you like to listen to movie soundtracks?  There are some I love, like The Sound of Music.  My Favorite Things is a favorite thing.  There are others where I love one particular song from the whole soundtrack.

          Someone challenged me to figure out what songs would make up the soundtrack of my life.  I have thought for a long time about this.  I think most of the songs in my soundtrack would be songs that have carried me through rough waters.

          There is Great Is Thy Faithfulness.   “Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine and ten thousand beside.”

          Then there were the days when my father was dying of Alzheimer’s and life seemed to get heavier and heavier.  Then a friend sent me the words to one of the lesser known stanzas of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.  “And ye, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low, who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow—Look now!  For glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing.  O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing!”  There have been in the past and are now many days where I am bent low and toiling with painful steps and I must stop to hear the angels sing.

          When I was fearful and overwhelmed with uncertainty, the words of the Swedish hymn, Security, brought comfort.  “More secure is no one ever than the loved ones of the Savior, not yon star on high abiding or the bird in home nest hiding.  What He takes or what He gives us shows the Father’s love so precious.  We may trust His purpose wholly—Tis His children’s welfare solely.”

          In Day by Day I am reminded that “The protection of His child and treasure is a charge that on himself he laid.”  And I remember that I am His child and His treasure.

          If I were to choose a theme song for this soundtrack of my life, it would be Down from His Glory.  “Oh, how I love Him.  How I adore Him.  My breath, my sunshine, my all in all.  The great Redeemer became my Savior and all God’s fullness dwelleth in Him.”  This is my story, my song, my soundtrack.  I love the dear Lord Jesus.  I want that to be the theme of my soundtrack that others will hear.

                                                              ~~Faith Himes Lamb

MY VALENTINE IS LOVE

I love love. In fact, I'm still on a high from Valentine's Day. I know some despise the day. Some complain that it's about selling cards and candy. But I love any occasion to think about, dream about and celebrate love. There are parts of the day I'd like to block from my memory, like the times I would painstakingly decide which boy would get which little card. I didn't want to send the wrong message to any of them! There was also the Valentine's Day in college when I finally had a real Valentine...and he got me a totally wrong gift. I won't go into detail, but I still remember the feeling that this guy did not truly understand or love me. And, of course, like so many others, there are the times I fell captive to the lie that I was alone on Valentine's Day.

So why is it different this year? I'm NOT going to say that I have a boyfriend or that I got engaged. Believe me, you'll know when that happens! I do have a Valentine, though. His name is Love. 1 John 4:8 says that God is love. He IS love. It's who He is, and I love it! God's love sustains me, overwhelms me, pursues me, and woos me. My box of chocolates this year was the friends that He blessed me with. My rose, my family. My teddy bear, my loving Savior who wraps me in His eternal, whole, perfect, exciting love.

I still love love, but I love LOVE now more than ever! I still hope for all the love that a Valentine's Day would bring, and the Reese's peanut butter cups that come with it, but I won't trade Love for love. He's mine. And I'm His. My Valentine is Love.

~Rebecca Phillips

Spinach Seeds and Apple Trees

Have you been to Home Depot lately?  Seed packets are in!  Last fall I went looking too late; there were no spinach seeds to be found.  So when I was there a few days ago I got some for early planting and picked up some Brussels sprouts on a whim.  They were only $1.59.  Even if I harvest nothing at all, it’s worth that much to dig in the dirt and enjoy the experiment.

I was thinking about those little brown spinach seeds this morning in Sunday School.  In the Christian Life class we are working our way through a study of end-time events.  We started out going through the Gospel of John, and someone asked a question that got us into this study. We started it in June and are still going strong in Revelation. I love the people I meet with on Sunday mornings, but today I got sort of stuck on one verse and couldn’t keep my mind following the discussion, as interesting as it was.

Here’s where my thoughts kept landing:  I Corinthians 15:35-38—“But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?’ Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.  And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.” 

“To each seed its own body”—Think of that!  I don’t know if you’ve planted spinach, but the seed is a tiny little brown ball, a bit larger than a pin head. Inside that hard little nugget is the blueprint for lovely, tender, nourishing, green leaves. Inside a little black apple pip is a complete tree with a trunk and places for bird nests and blossoms every spring.  It’s a magnificent and amazing plan.  Paul was making a point about resurrection in his discussion, and it’s going to take some long meditating for me to have a really good handle on what he was conveying.  But all spring I’m going to have an opportunity to see the analogy in action right in my own back yard!

I can’t wait.

--Sherry Poff