Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
One of my earliest memories at Meserve Grade School in Kansas City, Kansas, was music class. I always looked forward to Miss Theta Abel's music class.
My music teacher was young and petite and Abel had an outgoing personality. All the students in the class loved Miss Abel.
After music books were passed out to all the students, Miss Abel would give us the page number and then she blew on her pitch pipe. That was our signal that we were ready to sing. We sang a variety of songs like "Old Dan Tucker," "When the Caissons Go Rolling Along," "My Wild Irish Rose," and "America the Beautiful."
At times Miss Abel would bring tambourines, hand bells and drums. Sometimes she did music experiments. One day Miss Abel brought drinking glasses and felt colored mallets to our music class. She passed out glasses of the same size to several students. Then she came by each one of us and filled our glasses with water, pouring a different amount of water in each glass.
Then she did something unusual. She went by each student's glass, and put various sizes of rocks in each glass. Some students had bigger rocks and some had smaller rocks. She intended to play Amazing Grace (that was before political correctness) and she told us how to hold our glasses just so. She was going to take her mallets and tap on each student's glass to get a different tone.
We went through a "dry run." She started gliding from student to student in an attempt to play Amazing Grace. What we heard was not exactly the tune of Amazing Grace; some notes were off and some sounds were a dull thud to them.
Then the experiment went on. Miss Abel told each student to take the rocks out of the glasses. We followed her instructions and Miss Abel once again started her moving from glass to glass, tapping on each one. Expect for a little glitch now and then, it all went wonderfully well. Miss Abel glided back and forth from student to student, tapping each glass with her rubber mallet. The tune of Amazing Grace came out clear and smooth.
The glasses were the same size and our teacher tapped each glass with the same rubber mallet using the same amount of force. Yet, the difference in the notes we heard depended upon the amount of water in each of the glasses and also on whether there was an obstruction in each glass!
That little musical experiment from third grade many years ago was memorable. Yet as an adult, I see spiritual implications from that activity. We must be filled with the Spirit and nothing else!
Jesus warned His hearers about obstructions or sin in one's heart. He said: "What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean. Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. All of these come from your heart and they are what make you unfit to worship God." (Mark 7:20-23)
The Scripture says that we can be filled with the Holy Spirit and the results is life changing. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
When we are filled with the spirit of God, the hope within us is harmonious, uplifting, reassuring and comforting based on the harmony of our lives in tune with what God wants of us. God's grace working within in us can bring an uplifting melody from any circumstance.
That is the lesson from my childhood experience with Miss. Abel, my long ago music teacher.
Judy Brandon is a Clovis resident. Contact her at:
