The other day I was searching for something I had read in the not too distant past. The article had brought back memories of the nights my husband and I had gone to the city park to hear the band concerts.

I recall those summer nights, taking our lawn chairs, and sitting there listening to the beautiful music surrounded by other folks from the community who were also enjoying the sounds.

Well, the article I read quoted a bit of scripture from Romans where it says we are to ”present ourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and ‘your members to God as instruments for righteousness’.”

If you are wondering how a band concert in the park and the above scripture have something in common, let me share my thoughts with you.

I love music. I so enjoyed those concerts in the park. Also, each year the “Raise the Praise” concert has raised money for Beverly Farms, but it has also raised my spirits and all in all, ‘charged my battery’.

When I hear the Suzuki students play their violins and see the concentration in their faces, and experience the beauty of the music that comes from those small instruments, I am amazed.

When a choir sings “How Great Thou Art” or perhaps something from the Messiah, I feel my heart racing and often tears flooding my eyes.

I love music but I personally have no talent in that department. I love to sing with the congregation. I’d never make a candidate for the choir and I surely could never ever sing a solo. As my father would have said…”You can’t sing solo but perhaps ‘so low’."

All of this really is leading up to a point and the point goes back to the verse from scripture that I quoted.

Have you ever thought of yourself as an ‘instrument from God’? Perhaps not. Somehow until I read this article, the thought hadn’t occurred to me.

But the thought really touched me. I found myself thinking if I am an ‘instrument’ from God, then what am I supposed to be doing.

This may take a stretch of your imagination. Think for a moment of a marching band, a choir, a band concert, or even a musical trio.

What is it that they need? We’ll begin with talent. But then what? How about dedication and commitment?

And I suppose when you have the talent and the commitment, then comes the final component for a musical group.

It is the ability to work together to bring about the beauty to be found in music.

Now if we are to think of ourselves as God’s instruments, this suggests to me that we figure out what is our talent, we work to enhance that talent, and then we share that talent with others. But, there is one other thing that needs to be considered. We can’t just ‘toot our own horn’ if we are to work together as God’s instruments.

We need to offer our talents to God and then work together harmoniously and then and only then will we become what scripture calls, ‘instruments of righteousness’. In other words, (my opinion), it means we are all given gifts to share and as we learn to work together under God’s direction, we can produce something good and beautiful, something that may change and enrich the lives of both ourselves and others.

Wouldn’t it just be wonderful if our world produced more harmony, peace and beauty and less such a cacophony of noise and bitterness?

Let’s each start by pledging to work earnestly under God’s direction, to become instruments for righteousness.