For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
So many blessings surround us, and one for which I am most grateful is the blessing of music. The scripture reading from The Upper Room today as I write this is Ephesians 5:19-20, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to he Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ever since I was a small child I have loved to sing. When I was about ten years old my mother took me to a voice teacher, a gruff old man who looked a lot like Beethoven with busy white hair and brows. He told my mother I didn’t have any special talent, and he wasn’t interested in coaching me. So much for my budding operatic career!
Not to be deterred from her hope of having a musician in the family, Mother started me in piano lessons with dreams that I would become a concert pianist (Mother always dreamed big!) Well, that dream was never realized; I simply didn’t have the talent for it, but it did expose me to music of all kinds.
My piano teacher, and later on, my voice coach (yes, I did find one) were kindly people who exposed a teenager to the wonderful world of music, both secular and sacred. Singing in the choir has been such a blessing to me almost all my life, and I am thankful for the words and music of so many “hymns of praise.” In this Advent season as we hear the familiar carols and hymns, let’s be grateful that we can enjoy this special blessing form our heavenly Father -- the blessing of music.
Jean Dean
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