Life’s Rhapsody

Life’s Rhapsody

The LORD is my strength and my song.

Exodus 15:2

The fair-haired composer sat at her piano, working carefully on her new and, she hoped, finest rhapsody. The work of composing this piece was not easy; she struggled with the melodies, and the chords did not seem complete somehow. At the end of the frustrating day, the tired young woman laid down her pencil and left the unpolished music on the piano. She sighed as she slowly went to bed, thinking, It’s just not right.

Later that evening, the composer’s old, white-haired father came home and noticed his daughter’s work on the piano. Being a composer himself, he sat down and played through his daughter’s rhapsody. He smiled because he had taught her to love and write music. Then he took up her pencil and began filling in the missing notes to complete the full, rich chords his daughter had imagined but was unable to write. He worked long into the night adding minor strains and lilting melodies to the music. Finally, with a nod of satisfaction, he left the piece where he had found it and went to bed.

The next morning the daughter sat down at the piano to begin polishing her work from the day before. As she played through the beautiful music, she was amazed at how thrilling it was. She congratulated herself on producing a much more glorious composition than she had remembered from the night before. It was, indeed, the finest rhapsody of her career.

And so it is with life. We compose our lives as we go along, but the strains of a masterpiece are often hindered by our human frailty and weakness. Then the Master Composer comes along and fills in the missing notes. He adds the lilting melodies and minor chords so that the finished life plays like a symphony. He does not write a new song; he just enhances and polishes the basic rhapsody we have written through the years until it is a joy for others to hear.

Thank you, Father, for finishing my song. What more can I say? Amen.