Showing posts with label piano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label piano. Show all posts

Feb 21, 2025

THE HANDS THEMSELVES

In the back room, I listened to my sister giving piano lessons. 

I remembered the weeks before college I listened to a friend practice on the church piano while I listened in the back room.

I couldn't help but admire how she emphasized joyful lines but simplified the melancholic verses, careful to communicate the message and not draw attention to technique.

But then I wanted to cry. In my rebellion and depression--Mommy had called them my "Slough of Despond", I'd pretty much lost the good years.

Lifting up cupped hands toward the ceiling, then spreading out my fingers a little and feeling everything had slipped through them, I remember praying, "Oh God, I have little left to offer You. I've lost most of it. But if you'll have ME, you can have all of ME."



Do you remember I once blogged about an MK, Kent Penner, who authored Finding Rest, a book about Japanese kanji? Sunday afternoon, the Lord drew my eyes to another book written by another MK, Erisa Funada. She had earned her masters, had raised two little boys, and translated Instruments in the Redeemer's Hand, for Christian counselors in Japan, and I had spoken with her several weeks before she went to Glory.

Her book cover illustration seemed to emphasize the answer God gave me in that back room. "It wasn't the things in your hands but the hands themselves I wanted, June." I sensed Him say.


Hands authored the book, Finding Rest; hands worked on the translation, Instruments in the Master's Hand; and finally, the hands offered to God--finished a semblance of the book...well, Daddy called it "Kimiko-Roy's Adventure".

Readers of this blog know a lot of stories behind the amazing work of God recounted in the book. Would you like to read what has been written?


Go to KIMIKO-ROY'S ADVENTURE.rtf on my One Drive. You will not need to create an account or register a credit card here, and the book will not disappear after 5 days but will stay there.

May 18, 2024

SEEING

My friend said her workday was changed to today, so I don't get to see her. But may I share some things we talked about in previous visits?

"Can you actually see God?" she'd asked me. And we talked about how reading things He's sent me in the Bible are just as alive as seeing it with my eyes. No doubt those who've received love letters can SEE vividly the sender of the letter as if he were standing on the other side of the paper speaking straight to them. Old books can ring true even across miles and passing of time.

It wasn't only what I didn't actually SEE. I grew up with music you HEAR. You enjoy music, not with your eyes, but with your ears. I'm going to switch languages here, referring to the April 11 post "Eyeful or Earful":

公園の裏の池に行った時、カメラマンが皆、三脚に乗っている、デカいカメラで何かを狙っているのが見えた。鮮やかな青のカワセミ鳥が現れたに違いないと、わかった。池の橋のずっと向こう側、皆がいない所に行った。ちょっとびっくりしたのが、そこに、自分のように、うるさい連中から離れて、その鳥のキレイな姿が見えなくてもいいから、別の鳥のキレイな鳴き声を聞いて楽しんでいる人が数人いた。(4月11日ブログより)

Not only is it possible to enjoy without seeing, I told my Buddhist friend about something I'd seen here at the park that made me realize how unreliable sight is! One day, I saw a floating candle burning in the pond! Impossible, right? I took a photograph of it, but even my husband couldn't figure it out at first. It turned out to be the bottom of a curled water lily leaf reflecting light like wax. The "burning flame"? An orange carp swimming nearby.