I thought this was probably the coolest things I've read in a devotional.
Plus it was extremely fitting because I was in Connecticut on a worship seminar weekend.
The entire day we were studying chords, and modes, and key signatures and a bunch of really great useful stuff. (http://www.ignite2008.com/)
There are songs that can only be learned in the valley.
No art can teach them; no rules of voice can make them perfectly sung.
Their music is in the heart.
They are songs of memory, of personal experience.
They bring out their burden from the shadow of the past;
they mount on the wings of yesterday.
John says that even in heaven there will be a song that can only fully be sung by the sons of earth- the strain of redemption.
Doubtless is a song of triumph,
a hymn of victory to Christ who made us free.
But the sense of triumph must come from the memory of chains.
No angel, no archangel can sing it so sweetly as I can.
To sing it as I sing it, they must pass through my exile, and they can't do this.
None can learn it but the children of the cross.
And so, my soul, you are receiving a music lesson from your Father.
You are being educated for the choir invisible.
There are parts of the symphony that no one can take but you.
There are chords too minor for the angels.
There may be heights in the symphony that are beyond the scale- heights that angels alone can reach; but there are depths that belong to you, and that can only be touched by you!
Your Father is training you for the part the angels can't sing; and the school is sorrow.
I have heard many say that he sends sorrow to prove you, but! he sends sorrow to educate you, to train you for the choir invisible.
In the night he is preparing your song.
In the valley he is tuning your voice.
In the clouds he is deepening your chords.
In the rain he is sweetening your melody.
In the cold he is molding your expression.
In the transition from hope to fear he is perfecting your lights.
Don't despise the school of sorrow, O my soul; It will give you a unique part in the universal song.
--George Matheson
Just a little bit about George...
(Scottish theologian George Matheson was the remarkable blind preacher and hymn-writer of 'O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go.' Born on March 27, 1842 in Glasgow, Scotland, he was totally blind when he wrote this heartwarming hymn.
Dr Matheson had partial vision as a boy and by the time he was 18, he was completely blind. He described his writing as the "fruit of much mental suffering." He never married, and was aided by a devoted sister throughout his ministry. She learned Greek, Latin, and Hebrew in order to aid him in his studies.
Matheson's Career and Recognition
Despite handicap, Matheson had a brilliant career at the Glasgow Academy, University of Glasgow and the Church of Scotland Seminary. Amazingly, he obtained BA, MA and BD degrees. He was a scholar and graduated with honors. He received the honorary DD of the University of Edinburgh in 1879.
For 18 years, Matheson became parish minister of Innellan, Argyllshire. He was lecturer at Baird and St Giles, and a pastor of the 2,000 member St. Bernard's Parish (1886). The University of Aberdeen conferred on him an honorary LLD (1902). He became one of Scotland's outstanding preachers and pastors, where his eloquent preaching consistently attracted large crowds.
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