Unseen Symphonies

Does the above title seem like an odd phrase to you? Aren’t symphonies more for the ears than the eyes? If you answered “Yes” to the above queries (as I would have), read on.

I’ve listened to a number of pieces of orchestral music. A few were on the radio. Many were on CDs. But on several occasions, I’ve been privileged to see symphonies – or portions thereof – performed in person. I enjoy watching the maestro mold the musicians to play their notes at exactly the right moments. I love seeing the violinists paint the air with their bows. And I especially appreciate looking on as the harpists weave the strings of their instruments.

Several years ago, my wife and I were in the Canadian Rockies. As dawn was breaking one morning, we drove north to the lake in the photograph above. The water’s surface was down an embankment. Timing was critical. I got out to set up my camera and tripod while Jean turned our car around so that we could head back for breakfast. As she was getting out of the car to join me, another vehicle pulled over. The driver rolled down his window in the chilly morning air and asked, “What do you see?” Having experienced several wildlife “jams” of folks that were looking at a grizzly bear or an elk, my wife guessed at their intent and replied, “It’s just a reflection.” Sure enough, up went the window as the driver gunned the engine and sped up the road. In subsequent years, we realized how blessed we were to view such a wondrous sight and chuckled that it was “just a reflection.”

Then I realize that, like the people in the car that zoomed up the highway in Canada, I’m sometimes guilty of rushing up the road of life in pursuit of some future possibility (that might never happen), instead of reveling in the visual symphony that is right before me in the present.

So do not worry, saying,
‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things,
and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
– Matthew 6:31-32 (NIV)