I just want to share a happy surprise we gave ourselves last week…

The story starts with our record collection we’ve had from the early days of marriage. We used to listen to them, first on a console record player (remember those?) and then a component system. At some point, the turntable quit working, and there we were with records and no way to play them.

Of course, by that time we had CDs, but we kept some of the records, moving them at least three times. I bought equipment to digitize them, but it didn’t work. So there they sat. Most recently, they were living in a cabinet in the garage until I rearranged and had no room for them. I was going to give them away; after all, it had been over 20 years since we’d listened to them.

But as I was sorting them to donate or give to a friend or whatever, I kept finding records I didn’t want to get rid of! At the same time, June was looking at a catalog and found…wait for it…a portable record player! We said, “Why not? Instead of trying to digitize the records, why not just listen to them!”

So the little record player arrived, and we played a few tracks of music that took us back to the early years of our marriage. June said, “I feel like I’ve been to another world!”

Now the records and the little record player fit neatly onto a shelf in the den and occupy the corner of a small table when in use.

Is there a point? I’m not sure except sometimes the simplest solutions are the best, and God graciously gives us unexpected joys! Also, music is powerful. Gary Jansen, writing in Microshifts, says:

When my wife and I are feeling lethargic or down, we’ll hit the road for an hour in a car and just listen to our favorite upbeat music. It’s enough to inspire and press reset on a dull day.

And we forget that the ability to listen to music on any medium has been around only since 1877 when Edison invented the phonograph.

…God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6.17, ESV)

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. (James 1.17, MSG)

Psalm 150:3-6 (ESV)
3  Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
4  Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!
5  Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6  Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!