February 15 – “Gift of a memory”

 

 

Valentine's Day was an interesting one around our house.  I got up before anyone, as usual, and sitting on my desk in front of my computer was my Valentine gift.  Wrapped together in a neatly tied bow of ribbon were one of those giant Nestle Crunch bars and a creamy milk chocolate bar, just as big.  Yummy stuff.  Chris snuck it out before she came to bed the night before.  Great surprise.  I had to wait for her to wake up to pull out my gift for her.  It was hidden in a box in my closet.  No candy or flowers this year.  Instead she received the fruit of my garage projects labor. 

 

The single most difficult thing for Chris to accept losing after Hurricane Ike was her piano.  It was the one she learned to play on when she was a youngster.  It already had a cracked sound board, but there was extreme sentimental value there.  She cried silently when we carried it out of the house, and she really lost it when the Claw reached down and grabbed it and dropped it into the dump truck.  Quite the touching moment, but certainly one of great anguish.  The only thing we salvaged from the old piano was the wire piece that held up the music you played.  It was shaped into a musical score.  We thought we had the long skinny mirror that sat just behind it, but that disappeared into the post-Ike abyss. 

 

So for Chris' gift this year I was faced with the challenge of figuring out what to do with that musical-looking piece of wire.  It took a long time to clean.  It was covered in rust and gunk after sitting in the garage since 2008.  I tried several sprays and sandpapers, and finally got it presentable.  But since it had no practical use that I could think of, my only option was to figure out a way to mount it on something as a display piece.  I finally lit on a piece of our old cedar chest.  The chest itself was a casualty of the storm as well.  The cedar was fine, but the water had dissolved all the glue holding together, so all we had left was a stack of cedar pieces.  I found a piece that was wide enough and mounted the frame on top using brackets.  Nathan came by as I was finishing it up, and he made a suggestion that I followed up on.  I printed out a copy of the song Amazing Grace on some of that thick parchment paper.  Then I tore around the edges so it would look even older.  Finally I glued it in place onto the wire frame so it would look like a piece of music waiting to be played.  Again, there's not really a purpose behind it, other than to be a conversation starter about the storm or the old piano or maybe Chris' childhood.  Something else to dust.  But she seemed to like it.  I think she almost cried, though.  Is that a good thing?

 

Isaiah 64:4 says, "Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him."

 

Father, that's one thing we're not so good at – waiting.  Could you make forgiveness one of those mighty acts in our behalf?  Amen.