Sounds Odd to Me

                                    

The seed is the Word of God.

Luke 8:11

 

“This is so odd,” were the words I was greeted with early one Sunday mornning. Our granddaughter was coming up the steps with a new library book open and pointing to a list of numbers.  

Chuckling to myself at her choice of words I asked what was “so odd” about it. She pointed out that there were numbers missing in the list. The list was 4, 6, 9, 11, 14, etc. There was no pattern, indeed, numbers were missing. 

Chapter books are new to Stella. At four and a half she is just being introduced to them so a table of contents was nothing she had experienced before. She had seen the numbers, which she recognized and knew were not a complete list, but she does not yet read so she had ignored the titles of the chapters before the numbers. What was odd to her was actually usual to most of us. 

We all do this. When we have expeience with something we tend to think that our way is the way it will always be used. We find it odd when someone else does it differently. Stella’s remark caused me to consider what I find “odd” that is perfectly normal to someone else.  

At my age I probably won’t be surprised by how someone uses numbers (though the way programmers use numbers is odd to me!), and while I might be surprised by the actual words some people use, I’m not surprised that they misuse them.  

Then I remembered my surprise at the way a young Christian band used music at a conference I attended last week. It seemed “odd” to me to say the least. It was not like anything I had ever heard.  

The musicians used Biblcal words and ideas in their lyrics but literally screamed them into a microphone, they jumped around as they sang, and they overpowered me with their volume. This music did not reach me. I had to read the words on a screen to understand them. They assured us this was not the case for the audiences of young, urban, unbleievers they minister to. Apparently these kids relate to the music so they hear the words. It is all mindboggling to me.   

I have recently been told that “what you win them with you will win them to.” When I remember that loud, screechy, music I wonder what we are winning them with. When I remember the words of God that they sang with that music I am hopeful that it is those ever powerful words that  are winning them to salvation in Christ. 

Just as my grandaughter’s table of contents seemed odd to her so these young men sounded odd to me. The table of contents is a tool for those who understand how to use it. Likewise, though it is incredible for me to think of it as anything but odd, can that band can be a tool in the hands of God? In this music that is usual to the audience, are they planting the seed of His Word in a population that I know too little about?