Sheet music: “Beauiful Dreamer” by Stephen Foster (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One winter night in a tiny little country two men huddled near a fire at the kitchen table.  One was an accomplished musician skilled in various instruments.  The other was a poet, gifted with word craft.  He could speak beauty to anything.

Together they labored through the night and in the morning they celebrated what they had accomplished.  When the Sun had risen and warmed the little town,  the two men went out and performed their new song in the town centre.

The people came out to listen to the beauty of what has been created and were astonished.  Faces full of glee: they listened to the regal words.  These wonderous words described a people intent on the beautiful things.  And the music lifted them to heavenly appeal.

The people so loved the song that they ask the musicians to play it every morning.  They even drafted a law to pay these two men a salary.

Soon the little song had become  favored by all the people in the tiny country.  And the king announced that the song would now be the national anthem.

Every celebration the song was sung.  Every funeral, every wedding, every birth and every incident worthy of any note (no pun intended).

A day came when war was declared against the tiny country.  The neighboring King simply desired the land.  The tiny country’s  army fought valiantly.  And the national song was played on every Battlefront.

Alas they lost the war.  When the victorious King came in to take his new won land.  He gathered together all the magistrates.  His first order to them was that they bring these musicians before him.

When they arrived The Kings smiled at them.  ” I have heard your song on the battlefield and I myself have come to love it.’  The king ordered the musicians to play the song.

At the completion of the song the Kings face was awash with tears. To the amazement of all who were in attendance, the sobbing King ordered that all the citizens of the former country be killed.  “This song is far more worthy than the people who have loved it.  I now on this country, I now own this song!”

The moral of this story should be clear.  But looking around at humanity I can’t imagine how they would perceive it.  It is this:

Be careful what you create.  And be careful what you adore.   And if by chance you happen to create something beautiful and righteous, you would do well to live up to it.  Beautiful words and beautiful music do not make beautiful people.

By His Grace.