Your Music Note

Late one evening, as I was sitting in my room by myself and reading, something interrupted my sweet silence. 

It was quiet, but undeniable. Like someone had gently plucked the highest string of my guitar, which was resting against the wall in the corner of my room - the corner to which my back was turned. 

I froze, but I did not turn around. This was partly because I did not really want to see who or what had made that noise. I knew that I was in the room by myself, but in a flash of a moment, my mind considered the fact that someone could have intruded and plucked the single string of my guitar, or I entertained the wild notion that a ghost wanted me to be aware of his presence in the quiet stillness. 

More realistically, it could have been a mouse or a giant lizard...both of which I have found evidence in my room, but neither of which I particularly wanted to turn around and find face to face in this moment.

I let the after-silence ring loud before I mentally determined that I must turn around to solve the mystery of the plucked string.

And there, staring back at me with big beady, buggy eyes...

...was a little green cricket! Perfectly perched on my high E string. Looking proud of what he had done and the music he had made. If crickets can smirk, he was smirking. 

"Jimminy cricket!" I exclaimed and smiled. He quickly became a welcome visitor. Sometimes I feel like Cinderella talking to creatures who live in the room with me. Except I don't have cute little mice and tweety birds - I have crickets and cockroaches, but I name them and talk to them all the same. Perhaps I need some new friends. 

I told my new cricket friend that he can come play my guitar any time he likes, but it would be more considerate if he made his presence known first with a chirp or two so as to not scare me next time. 

I keep thinking about my cricket friend, and maybe I like him so much because I relate to him. 

When I think about the story of the Bible and God's plan from the beginning of time to redeem a lost world to himself...

When I realize that this narrative that was planned before the foundation of the world is an ongoing narrative of which I am a part...

When I ponder heaven and the day when God's plan will finally be accomplished when people from every tongue, tribe, and nation gather to worship him...

When I hear Jesus giving the great commission to go into all the world and make disciples...

I hear all this like a song: a beautiful melody written for a symphony of history that has multiple movements yet all connects into one sound that builds and culminates into a long, unified, wonderful piece. And it's not even over yet. I find myself right in the middle of it, wrapped up in the glory of it.

And I feel like a little cricket on a guitar string. I want to play this beautiful song, or at least take part in it, yet all I can do is pluck my single note. 

We are a part of something so much bigger than ourselves, a story that goes beyond our short lives, a song that carries more of a tune than what we can hear in our own present time with our own selective hearing. Our time here on this earth is short, but that doesn't mean our one note isn't important. We need to recognize our smallness to grasp the vast significance of the song in which we take part. Yet we must also grasp the significance of our smallness so that we can realize how our one note matters, and so we play it well. 

Pluck your note, little cricket, and let it echo in the silence. 

It inspires me to take a leap and land where God has called me to land, to pluck my note and let the world hear that it belongs to the greatest songwriter and his grand composition. This masterpiece began before the creation of the world, swelled as Jesus died on the cross and rose from the tomb, moved forward as the discipels spread the gospel to the nations, continues among the faithful followers of Jesus today, and will ascend to a splendid ending when all things are fulfilled and God recieves the worship that he alone absolutely deserves from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. 

Don't miss your note. Don't think that it's too small a thing. Don't despair because you are too small of a cricket to play a life-size guitar. You weren't meant to play the whole song, but you are purposed to pluck your note. Get caught up in this eternal song, take the leap, make the landing, pluck your note, and let it ring out for the glory of God.