Have you ever had the experience of hearing the perfect song come on the radio or in the background music in a building at just the right moment when you desperately needed it -- maybe to calm a nerve or to bring back a dear, sweet memory that filled you with joy? One of these experiences will forever be etched in my mind!
From a very early age, music has held a very important place in my life. My favorite part of attending church in the small town of Van Horne, Iowa, was learning and singing songs in Sunday School and hymns in the worship service. As a young girl, I hardly ever read the Bible, but discovered as I got older that much of my religious training came from the messages in those songs. The first time I read: His mercies are new every morning in Lamentations 3, I thought to myself, “Those words are in the hymn, Great Is Thy Faithfulness -- ‘Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.’”
In the third grade, I begged my mother to let me take lessons so I could learn to play the piano in our home. She said, “No, you will never practice.” She spoke from experience as my older sister had taken lessons for a time. I found the Beginner Lesson Book that my sister had used. It illustrated the names of the keys on the piano and began with very simple songs that showed which fingers to use for each note. Before long, I taught myself all the songs in that book.
That must have convinced my mother that I was serious, and she became willing to pay for a weekly lesson with a piano teacher. My mother was right about one thing -- I hardly every practiced! But in the five years of taking lessons, I learned the basics of playing the piano, even though I was not very good.
After quitting the lessons, I discovered popular sheet music. Those songs really motivated me to gain skill at the piano. I also went through the hymn books we had at home and learned all the songs in the key of C which are the easiest because of being played solely on the white keys. Then I progressed to one flat and one sharp, adding black keys. I continued adding sharps and flats until I could play every song in the hymn books. Music had become very important and meaningful to me.
Playing the piano continued to be very significant in my everyday life as I married and raised a family. I remember the first time hearing the song, “Love Changes Everything,” which was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber for the musical, Aspects of Love. It was at a pops concert that was held at my church. I could not wait to play it on our piano, so I brought the music home and began practicing. My husband also loved the song, and it sparked an idea for him. The annual talent show was coming up at the high school in a Houston suburb where he was head principal, I was a math teacher, and our three teens were students. My husband would sing bass for “Love Changes Everything,” our freshman son tenor, and our two daughters, a sophomore and a senior, soprano and alto. I would accompany them on the piano. Practicing together and then performing went beautifully and is one of my most treasured family memories.
Then tragedy struck several years later, and my husband died. It was the hardest time in my life, and I cried out to the Lord constantly for His help. Not long afterward, I received results from a mammogram that were suspicious and additional tests were ordered. While sitting in the waiting room feeling sad and anxious, I became aware of extremely annoying music playing in the background. My thoughts were: “Since this is a stressful place for most people to be, the least the administration could do is to have music that is pretty, soothing and calming.”
It was as if someone in charge of music had read my mind, because the VERY next song that came on was “Love Changes Everything.” I sat there in complete awe, because if I could have requested any song ever created, none other could have brought the feeling of peace this one did. It was as if my husband was sitting beside me, assuring me that everything was going to be just fine. And it was – then and now despite the ups and downs of life because my Lord is always there for me and His love endures forever.
… your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Matthew 6:8
