Packing Praise
I marvel at the mental picture in Exodus 15 after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. Moses leads the people in a song of praise to God for their miraculous deliverance, and then we see something extraordinary:
"And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances." (Exodus 15:20)
Wait a minute. Timbrels? You mean tambourines?
Let's consider the context. The Israelites had fled Egypt in haste. Pharaoh's army was bearing down on them. They were escaping slavery with only what they could carry, presumably just the bare necessities for survival in the wilderness.
Yet somehow, these women had packed tambourines. All of them?
Can you imagine the packing decisions? "Let's see... bread, water, extra sandals... and definitely my tambourine!" It makes me smile to think about it.
O, Come, Let Us Adore Him
The Christmas gifts are now put away, and the New Year is in full swing, but I can't seem to shake the melody of "O Come, All Ye Faithful" from my mind. More specifically, the phrase "O come, let us adore Him" keeps repeating like a stuck record in my thoughts. As I sit here in my cozy Welsh cottage, watching the snow in my driveway sparkle in the rising sun, I find myself pondering what it truly means to adore Christ.
You see, we sing these carols year after year, often without giving much thought to their deeper meaning. We know the tunes by heart, and the words roll off our tongues with practiced ease, but do we really understand what we're declaring when we sing about adoring Christ?
Starting Your Day in Tune With God
Rise and shine, my friends! A brand new day awaits, brimming with promise and potential. Now, before we hurry off to tackle that to-do list, let's pause to tune our instrument, shall we? After all, as Hudson Taylor said, “Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.”
Have you ever arrived at a concert early and been privy to the pre-concert tune-up? Honestly, it makes my eyes twitch and my head ache. Each musician is busily tuning his/her instrument, seemingly oblivious to all the other “noise” around them. There are squeaks and scrapes. In short, it’s a hideous sound. But as Taylor’s quotes remind us, it’s a necessary one.