August 30, 2022 - Good Morning! It's Tuesday, August 30. Bro. David is taking a week of vacation and will be reprinting some favorite devotions from the past. Today's selection originally ran on October 6, 2021.
I have two parlor organs in my home. I feel that it is important to have two parlor organs in my home. In the event that should one of my parlor organs fail, I would then have a back-up parlor organ. This is essential, of course, since, as everyone knows, one should never be without... a parlor organ. Words to live by.
Parlor organs - also known as pump organs or reed organs - were popular in the United States between about 1880 and 1920. Millions found their way into upper class parlors (living rooms) where the well-to-do would use them to make their own entertainment. They were lighter than pianos and didn't go out of tune and they usually boasted fine carving and craftsmanship. Parlor organs were often the most beautiful, and the most expensive, piece of furniture in Victorian homes. But, as always, things began to change. The relatively inexpensive Victrola became the primary home entertainment item and then, with the advent of radio, the parlor organ suddenly became, in the modern 20th century home, what it remains today - a quaint remembrance of the past.
My two parlor organs look about the same. Their exteriors are well crafted and well preserved. But on the inside they are fundamentally different. One of them can still make beautiful music. The other won't play a note. And that brings us to the reason I'm suddenly preoccupied with parlor organs. We are reminded in I Samuel 16:7, that "the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart". And then in Matthew 23:27, Jesus famously, and dangerously, calls the Pharisees "whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead bones".
We are more concerned, many times, with the condition of our outward appearance or the condition of our reputation with people, than we are with the condition of our relationship with the Father. As often happens, we place our priorities diametrically opposite of God's priorities. He created us for relationship with Him. That is His priority. He looks on the heart. If I were to sell one of my parlor organs, which, of course, I would never do (see paragraph 1), which one do you think I would sell? The one that just looks pretty on the outside - or the one that continues to do what it was created to do... make beautiful music.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
