"Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

Monday, July 2, 2012

Enjoyment, Not Attachment

        There are many beautiful things for us to enjoy, but it would be wrong for us to become attached to them. Since I knew and was interested in music, I can cite some examples. I am sure that many of you are probably familiar with the Styne/Cahn song The Things We Did Last Summer. Both the music and lyrics are so beautiful that it can bring back old memories and make you cry. You can hear the many versions on YouTube, including Frank Sinatra's. If you feel good listening to it, just thank God for it, for all things beautiful come from him. 
    Two other piano solos you most likely will find enjoyable are these videos on YouTube, 
The first piece is based upon Gershwin's song Embraceable You. The great American pianist Earl Wild just made a virtuoso etude out of it and in this video the Korean pianist Yeol-Eum Son interprets it possibly even better than Wild himself. The second video is based upon the song En Avril made popular by the French singer Charles Trenet. Then Alexis Weissenberg, the Bulgarian-French pianist arranged it for piano solo and in this video the Canadian pianist Marc-Andre Hamilin plays it. (To hear Trenet sing the original song, go on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Piuuuzhho.) Again, enjoy the music, thank God, and move on. God gives us beauty for us to enjoy and not to become enslaved by it. We should let all enjoyable experiences draw us even closer to God, for his beauty is beyond comprehension until we are with him in person.          

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