The Gift of Music

Yesterday was a big day at our house. Both Heather and I participated in concerts preformed by our choral organizations--Heather with her high school chorale, and me with the Stillwater Chamber Singers. The two concerts were given back-to-back with the Chamber Singers at 2:30 p.m. at St. Andrew's Episcopal, and Heather's at 4:00 p.m., around the corner at The First Christian Church. It was a wonderful afternoon of Christmas music, and then afterwards, our family, including the kids' dad, and my son Nathan, who had come down from Wichita to attend both concerts, came over to our house for a little impromptu Christmas party.

After my concert, one of my voice students who had been in attendance, approached me to give her congratulations and to tell me how much she enjoyed it. As we stood there chatting, she shared with me that she brought with her, a friend who brought her 10-year-old step-daughter whom she and her husband had just gotten custody of after it had been determined that the child's mother was severely neglecting her. Charity went on to tell me that this child had never been anywhere or done anything special, and had never been to a concert of any kind. The only kind of music that this little girl had ever heard was rap music on the radio, and didn't even know that music like what we sang even existed.

As Charity described to me the child's reaction to our concert, my eyes welled with tears. She said that from the first note, (our opening piece began with a pipe organ and trumpet fanfare), the little girl's eyes opened wide and a huge smile lit her face. She listened intently as the choir joined in and as the music swelled through the sanctuary. Charity went on to describe how the child exclaimed that this must be heaven because she thought that this music could only come from heaven and even though she had never heard any of this music before, (even the traditional Christmas Carols), she tried to sing along with the choir with every note! The child was absolutely enthralled and sat through the entire concert without a fidget, and when it was over, (after over an hour), the little girl protested, "Is it over already? I want to hear some more!"

I walked away humbled and blessed, realizing that of all the gifts I will give this Christmas, the gift I gave to this child, the gift of music is the one most dear.