On Sunday, July 21, our Summer Choir sang an anthem, “Bind Us Together” for service, and I added the flute and trombone parts for Grace and Solomon to join us. During the rehearsal before the service, one of the choir members told me that the sound of the flute was not noticeable because of its low range. I told her that you will hear more towards the end of the piece. I arranged the flute part to play the melody line in the beginning, some counter-melody (descant) for the middle, and the melody one octave higher for the last time to enhance the feeling of ending. I explained that if everything is always so noticeable, it would not be playing in ensemble, but shouting.

This reminds me of the ensemble of the universe and our lives that God creates. As much as most of us want to be recognized when we contribute our time and effort to group work, things do not always go the way we want. Sometimes, we are rewarded with people’s recognition. But sometimes, nobody seems to be giving their appreciation or even acknowledging our work. We know Jesus said, “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing (Matthew 6:2)”, but is it really that easy?

As church music director, I always feel that my efforts to recognize people for their works have not been enough. I am usually in front of people because I need to conduct or play before them. My name is pretty much always in the first line on the list of musicians’ names. But, all the people who made all these wonderful ministries possible are often not in visible places. So, I try to call their names or put them in the program. It has, however, never been perfect anyway.

On one Wednesday morning, I was scheduled to share my devotion during the staff meeting. I read an interesting article from Our Daily Bread (July 7, 2013), about heavenly music we cannot recognize. “One of NASA’s observatories has discovered a giant black hole that hums. Located in the Perseus cluster of galaxies about 250 million light years from Earth, the black hole vibrates at the frequency of a B flat. But it is too low a pitch to be picked up by the human ear. Scientific instruments have placed the note at 57 octaves below middle C on a piano”.

God’s work includes lots and lots more things we don’t hear, and maybe we shouldn't hear. But this universe cannot be maintained without these hidden works. Even a church musician, with very limited talents like me, has some plans to make music effectively. Then, how can we even try to figure out God’s immense job? We might need to be more patient and wait for our time to be a highlight on God’s timetable. And what would be the matter for us, even if God doesn't give us the chance to be in the spotlight, if we can still have a glorious part in His marvelous work?