Life is full of beautiful sounds. Children laughing. Birds chirping. The crash of ocean waves on the shore. Snow falling in the forest (yes, it has a distinct sound).
And my current personal favorite, the tick… tick… tick.. tick. tickticktickticktick. tick. tick.. tick… tick… tick of hot water pipes in the wall at 3:17 AM. Although I used to find that sound incredibly annoying, especially when it woke me from my peaceful slumber, it was the most beautiful sound in the world last night.
Why? Because it meant we had heat in the house again.
During the cold snap the last few days, our heating pipes froze and we were without heat. So I spent a dozen hours or so over the past couple days using hair dryers, pulling back carpet, moving furniture, climbing around in freezing crawl spaces, and other assorted methods, all in an attempt to locate the frozen pipe and get the heat going again. Also, I was dreading that when it did start flowing, I might end up with a burst pipe.
And then, last night, at about 10:30 PM, while I was on the phone with a friend from Oregon, my wife ran in excitedly and said, “The walls are ticking! I heard the walls ticking!” We both ran to the wall and listened to the beautiful noise of the copper pipes heating up inside the wall. Last week, it was the most annoying sound in the world. Last night it was the most beautiful sound. And at 3:17 AM, I didn’t even mind being woken up it.
Funny how perspective changes everything…
Take curse words and coarse jokes, pointed questions about the accuracy of Scripture or the deity of Jesus, or even mindless chatter about Jersey Shore and sports statistics.
All these things used to annoy me. But now, just like the ticking pipes in my wall, they are beautiful sounds, because they tell me I’m hanging out with the right people, the kind of people Jesus hung out with… the people whom God loves.
I agree that perspective can change how we feel/think about things. However, I will never consider curse words or coarse jokes as beautiful sounds. I understand what you meant. You’ve been given opportunities to share Christ’s love with those people. I would be thankful for such opportunities, too. But I would eventually let them know that curse words and coarse jokes are not pleasing to God. Definitely not beautiful! God loves those people but not their curse words and coarse jokes.
~A sister in Christ who is a friend of your friend in Oregon whom you talked with on the phone 🙂
I see what you mean, but for several theological reasons, I rarely try to be the conscience of other people.
I checked out your blog. I loved the Butterfly Circus video. I will repost it here soon.
I posted a comment earlier. Did it go through?
Yes, but for some reason, my spam filter caught it. Thanks for sending me an email about your missing comment.