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| The missing music |
Normally, keeping track of band music is not something I see as my responsibility. But on Saturday, after her band performance, she was bused to an amusement park, and I was in charge of getting her flute and her music home. Which I did. I was sure. Mostly. The problem was, I had no actual recollection of where I had put either her flute OR her music. Naturally, I assumed they would be together. The flute was in its expected location. So where was the music?
I searched the area where the music is kept. Nothing. I checked her bedroom. Nothing. I looked in the van. Nothing. What about the three possible "drop off" locations (you know, the ones where EVERYTHING gets stacked, but where none of it actually belongs)? Nope, nope, nope. The music was no where to be found.
And then a little thought came: did my violinist daughter mistake it for her music, and put it in her own backpack? I texted her at school to ask. No, she assured me, not there. But could I please bring her violin to school? *Sigh* Sure thing, my love!
I had promised 14dd that I would drop off her music to her on my way to work, if I ever found it. She was particularly concerned about it, because today was the day she needed to turn it all in. If it doesn't get turned in, she gets fined. When I COULD NOT find it, I resigned myself to the fines. How much could it be, anyway? It's not like she lost a textbook!
When 14dd came home from school, her greeting to me went like this: "You didn't bring my music to me today." My response:"I never found your music!" And then I retraced all of my searching steps from earlier in the day, verbally and physically with her. Still no luck.
But what about violinist dd's backpack? She had assured me that it wasn't there, but had she actually looked? I found her backpack, and opened it up to look for myself. There was a black orchestra folder with violin music, and a second, identical folder with...flute music.
Naturally, as a mom, this was not something I could just let go. I confronted her about it (not to be confrontational, exactly, but, well, "I told you so!" can be so satisfying!). "Did you actually look?" I asked. "Or did you just assume it wasn't there?" Turns out she hadn't looked, for two reasons. The first was that she didn't have access to her backpack at the time I texted. Understandable. The second was that there was NO POSSIBLE WAY that it could be there. Except...it was. She hadn't put it there so how could it be there? (Probably someone who was tidying up on Saturday assumed it belonged to her and put it away--very kindly, I might add.)
Interestingly enough, that is just what we do when we ask and then receive answers to prayers. Sometimes, we receive a prompting, but because we see NO POSSIBLE WAY for it to work (or be relevant, or whatever) we brush it aside and wonder why the Lord won't answer our prayers. In reality, the answer is there, but we fail to recognize it because we have already decided that there is no way for it to work. If we would just open our minds to the reality that God works in mysterious ways (sometimes VERY mysterious!), we might consider that the little bit of inspiration is just the answer we've been looking for.
Funny enough, we experienced another "impossibility" on Sunday at Grandma and Grandpa's house. One of the kids was playing on the rope swing on the back patio, and the carabiner that secured it to the beam somehow came detached. Grandma asked Grandpa to go fix it, but he insisted that it was impossible. There was no way that the swing could have detached. Even after he saw it, he stated repeatedly that it was impossible. And really, it did seem impossible. None of us understood what kind of physics could have been at play (the carabiner was in good shape--not loose or anything), but what seemed to be impossible still happened. (I do know that spinning was involved, and that a dress got wound around the rope, and the rope stiffened up, but beyond that, I'm stumped).
There are two points to this whole thing, I suppose: first, don't brush inspiration off as impossible. If you aren't sure if it's inspiration, ask. And then do. God doesn't send a big answer if a small one will suffice. Second: the "impossible" happens all the time. Just because we don't understand the "how" doesn't mean that it can't happen. And really, isn't a miracle just something that SEEMS impossible according to our understanding, but because of GOD'S understanding, it can happen anyway? Seems to me that if we feel like we need a miracle, we need to start EXPECTING the impossible.
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