Orchestra                                                                                                              2009 07 12     

  Dream:  I saw a full orchestra being led by a conductor. There were three or four players of each instrument seated together in their proper arrangement. Each had his or her music in front of them on a stand. All were dressed in formal attire, black suit or dress, with black tie and white shirt for men.

All were silent and ready as the conductor raised both hands. The music began as the conductor lowered his hands and began to instruct the musicians. The music was beautiful. All was in order. Each musician playing his part with the fullest intensity, following his music as he followed the instructions of the conductor.

Each player concentrating on starting and stopping his part, taking great care that his playing stopped at the precise second so that the next instrument to be played would sound it’s best. Each player seemed to be more concerned with the next musicians part than he was with his own and took great care not to play too loudly or softly so that the other musicians would be able to concentrate fully on their individual parts.

The music was beautifully harmonious. Each musician started exactly on time and ended perfectly. No one was playing too loudly or trying to over power anyone else.

Then the scene changed and I saw that there was one player in the middle of the back row that was out of uniform. He was wearing a white shirt with no tie and no jacket. Then in the midsection someone stood up and began playing a saxophone very loudly. Then one of the violin players stood up and began to play much louder, in competition with the saxophone player. The rest of the orchestra became confused and didn’t know what to play so one at a time they began to stop playing their instruments and began to look around to see what everyone else was going to do. The three that had called attention to themselves seemed to be very happy with this attention and each of the three took off into their own music playing as loudly as they wanted with no thought for the other members of the orchestra.

All were looking around not knowing what to do. No one was looking at the conductor.

Then one at a time each began to play his own song, totally oblivious to the other members of the orchestra. The noise was horrible, as they all played their own songs, as loudly as they could in an attempt to be heard. They no longer had any thought of any other, only themselves, as they became angrier and angrier in their attempt to be heard.

Some began smashing their instruments on their chairs, and worse yet some began to throw their instruments at the other musicians. They began screaming at each other, all in an attempt to be heard.

The conductor watched quietly then finally began to back away, then he turned around and walked away.

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I told Ross this morning that the dream was no new revelation. We all know that Christ’s Body is in turmoil. But just watching the dream in the beginning when the musicians were all more concerned with the welfare of the others than themselves moved me tremendously. The sound of the music when they all played in harmony was beautiful beyond words and the sight of the faces as they looked over to the next player as he began his part was indescribable. I felt the love and service that the musicians felt for each other, and for the music itself, appreciating the fact that those listening could only benefit from the music if each part were played in order to perfect and complete what had been orchestrated by the conductor. 

Each played his own part, following his own music, as he followed the conductor. Starting exactly on time, stopping exactly on time, always looking to the one by his side to begin the next part, knowing that if he played too loudly or too softly, too slowly or too fast that the audience would be disturbed by his mistake and the beauty of the harmony would not be heard.