What God hath wrought . . .

 Isaiah 41:17-20. NIV

The poor and needy search for water,

    but there is none;

    their tongues are parched with thirst.

But I the Lord will answer them;

    I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

18 I will make rivers flow on barren heights,

    and springs within the valleys.

I will turn the desert into pools of water,

    and the parched ground into springs.

19 I will put in the desert

    the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.

I will set junipers in the wasteland,

    the fir and the cypress together,

20 so that people may see and know,

    may consider and understand,

that the hand of the Lord has done this,

    that the Holy One of Israel has created

I have a secret guilty pleasure.  No, not chocolate.  Not coffee.  Not even peppermint mocha latte.  Those are totally yummy.  Even guilty pleasures.  But not really secret.  No, my secret guilty pleasure is . . . . bag pipe flash mobs.  

I do love me some bagpipes and am happy to watch scheduled public performances, but somehow a pipe and drum flash mob thrills my heart like nothing else does.  When I am feeling anxious or overwhelmed, the sound of massed bag pipes soothes my soul.   Once I get my fill of bagpipes - and that does take a while - I move on to flash mobs singing the Hallelujah Chorus in a mall or playing the Ode to Joy in a public square.  After an hour or so I can return to whatever I was doing before.  

What does my obsession with bagpipes have to do with Isaiah?  It’s kind of the way the Lord satisfies my thirst on those anxious days.  Music in general moves my soul.  Watching the expressions on the faces of a choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus in a mall food court I am transported with them to a place of worship.  When a single bass violin begins to play Ode to Joy in public square and instrument by instrument an orchestra gathers, and then a choir comes and fills the air with the Ode to Joy I weep for joy, sometimes with great wrenching sobs.  But I can’t start there . . . this is the culmination of a brief spiritual interlude that always starts with bagpipes.

Creator God, I know you have done this.  You created music.  Your hand made us to be creatures to whom music speaks in any and all circumstances. And for these things I am grateful.  Amen