Spring Song

To day is the first day of Spring. It is not often you get to hear something beautiful for the first time on the first day of Spring.
The Finnish Composer Jean Sibelius wrote a Tone Poem called 'Spring Song' It tells of the coming of spring after the long cold yet magical Finnish winter The season of darkness passing and new hope coming just when the memories of Christmas begin to pass away.
Sibelius could write his country into his music ,you are there when you play his music and you feel like an eagle soaring over the forests and lakes watching people come alive. Finland is a land of the heart with a very hard language ,It is one of the few places where you can find peace and solitude and time to think . The Hill Country of Texas is another.
It has been over 40 years since I have been in Finland but somehow I have never forgotten it nor has the magic of the country died so to hear a piece of Sibelius lovely music for the first time has been superb and that same music I will listen to many times.

It made me think that if hearing a piece of music for the first time can have such a joyous effect what will it be like to see Jesus compared to whom all Sibelius music is trash as is everything else. There will be one day that first vision of the King of Kings who hung on a cross for me to save me from going to hell and to get me to His Fathers Kingdom.
Sibelius wrote some drop dead gorgeous heart grabbing music but imagine writing music to celebrate the first time you see Jesus and just kneel at his feet .He is the most beautiful symphony ever written. Maybe with "Spring Song" you can change it into your heart  not about the coming of a season but the King of Kings Jesus the Christ

Home Star State

With the years ticking away I have been thinking where I would like to live in America. One picture sticks in my mind .In 2006 I was driving back to the house in Texas where I was staying and it was the most marvellous sunset . As I drove I could almost feel the place wrap itself around me like a loving mother. Bandera was small but had a lot going on. I had not met Stephanie but felt at home here. I had eaten in the OST and loved the décor then the food. The people I had seen were good folks a bit like Mayberry on the Andy Griffiths show.
In eight years things drastically changed and I am older and thankfully married to Stephanie. We could get a house in Montgomery and that would be nice but in your dreams you keep walking down to Bandera and the places round about her . There are snakes and fireants and scorpions but the people more than make up for that. There can be a shortage of water.
We have a big God who can do miracles like getting us a house in Tarplay, Utopia, Medina or Bandera or one of the villages round about.
I know two things after searching my heart - 1. I want to spend the rest of my life with Stephanie no matter how long or short that may be. 2. Texas just won't go away .I t has a Siren like quality and I felt safe thinking about it when it did not seem to happen. God has ways of making anything happen
Be practical, think carefully you are getting older and so on .The truth is you only get one life here on earth and it "ain't over till its over." We serve a miracle working God and may be he can let me hang up my Long rifle over the fireplace of a home in the Hill country. I know too that if I got called home first Stephanie would be in the place where her heart is. Being part of a community that cares and where everyone young or elderly contribute. Come lay your bones out in the Hill Country but it would be nice to enjoy life with my most wonderful wife and the scenery of the Texas Hill country for as long as the Lord allowed.