Our little grandson is perfect, of course, but he is curious about everything—especially things like CDs or old cassettes arranged neatly on shelves! Recently, I decided it was high time we stored these items in my study rather than in our lounge room, thus removing at least one temptation for him. Anyway, what grandparent wants to keep saying, ‘Don’t touch that!’ or ‘No!!’ and taking things from a grandson who looks up with big brown eyes and clings on for dear life to the treasured item he has discovered?!
Moving the items turned out to be the easy part. Much harder was the task of culling both the CDs and our few remaining cassettes, some of which had sustained me through various interesting times in my life or had been favourites in earlier years.
Among these was one cassette that is unique on several counts. It doesn’t look much—it is just a homemade cassette with some songs on it I recorded many years ago for my mother. But what memories it holds! My mother wasn’t particular about the quality—she just wanted to hear her daughter sing. After all, we lived many kilometres away in another part of Australia and saw each other usually only once a year. I remembered then how I had spent many hours sitting in our church as I recorded myself singing, accompanying myself on the organ, piano or guitar. As I listened this past week, not only did the songs evoke memories of other places where I had sung these songs, but it also brought a wave of nostalgia for that time years ago when I could sing as high as I did then and when I could actually play those complicated piano accompaniments I had recorded!
But it was the very first piece on the cassette that threw me completely. To my great surprise, I found I had included a recording of an old anthem King of Kings in excellent four part harmony, sung by our church choir in the South Australian town where we lived around thirty-five years ago! And guess who featured in the very high soprano solo? Yours truly! I listened open-mouthed. No churches, in our circles at least, sing such songs these days. Church choirs are by and large a thing of the past, as are organs like the one at that country church. Yet what joy we had had, practising and performing together, I remembered.
What a reminder of God’s gracious hand on my life, watching over me down through the years! What rich experiences God allowed me to have, even in those days in South Australia as a young mum with three little ones when life was often so busy and draining! As I reflected on my ‘blast from the past’, I was filled with awe. God has persevered with me, teaching me so much, walking me through challenging experiences, rejoicing with me at the many high points in my journey.
People, we serve a faithful, faithful God. May we never forget that and may we all be so thankful!
Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. Psalm 115:1
Praise the Lord. Praise, O servant of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore. Psalm 113:1
Jo-Anne Berthelsen's Blog 
Leave a Reply