T42D: Reflections
Rodders reflects this week on some past songs and a very present God.
Ed.
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During this coronavirus pandemic I’m sure many people have been reflecting on what is important in their lives.
Family, loved ones, health, employment are things that people took for granted, but maybe not now.
I do like a lot of Queen songs and Freddie Mercury sings a lovely song, ‘These were the days’. The song looks back over a life and the love he has experienced.
However, a sad reflection on Freddie Mercury’s life, is when he said,
“Oh I was not made for heaven. No, I don’t want to go to heaven. Hell is much better. Think of all the interesting people you’re going to meet down there!”
As Christians, we would say that this was delusion on Freddie’s part. However, in contrast, George Frederick Handel, the great musician and composer, lost his health, his right side paralysed, his money gone and his creditors seized and threatened to imprison him.
Handel was so disheartened by his tragic experiences that he almost despaired for a brief time. But his faith prevailed and he composed his greatest work ‘The Hallelujah Chorus’, which is part of his great composition of ‘The Messiah’.
The apostle John wrote, “This is our victory that overcomes the world, even our faith”.
If you Google ‘reflections’ in popular songs there are over 50. I have always liked ‘Reflections of my life‘, by Marmalade and the Supremes singing ‘Reflections’. However, both these songs look at the sad aspect of life.
Yet as we reflect on the Christian message, we see a God who wants to give.
A father takes his son into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun, shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone.
Once he survives the night, he is MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come to manhood on his own. The boy is terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm.
The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing his blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
We, too, are never alone. Even when we are not aware, God is watching over us; sitting on the stump beside us.
I came across this poem:
‘We know not what the future holds in times like these today;
The castles that we start to build may crumble and decay,
With all earth’s vast uncertainty — some poverty, some wealth,
For some the best that heart could wish; for others failing health.
Hold on to God’s unchanging hand no matter where you go;
Relinquish not your trust in Him though weakened by the foe.
May God’s eternal leadership our stronghold ever be.
Oh, strengthen, Lord, our faith and hope for what we cannot see!’
We don’t need to worry about all the bad things that are happening around us because we have read the last chapter of the Book to see how it all ends.
The Bible says that Jesus is coming again and if we are still alive when He comes we will be caught up with Him to live for all eternity with all those who have put their trust in Him.
Although it is good to reflect, my Thought for the day, and for the rest of 2020, is that, you can trust God to be with you in every situation and circumstance, despite all the chaos that is going on around.
Just because you cannot see God, doesn’t mean He is not there, for we walk by faith, not by sight.
As the 1971 hit by Ocean put it,
‘Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water,
Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea.
Put your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee’.
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Rodders
