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In 1931, when Arturo Toscanini was the leading orchestra conductor in America, NBC put together a concert tour of Latin America and invited him to conduct. The day came for musicians from orchestras across the country to begin rehearsal. It was a hot August afternoon and in a rehearsal hall without air conditioning.
The orchestra began rehearsing Beethoven's Sixth Symphony. The professional musicians knew the music, where they were to come in, and where they were to rest. They knew where they could get up and have a smoke and be back in time to come in on their part.
But something unplanned happened when Toscanini began to direct. By the end of the first movement the musicians could sense it. No one was day-dreaming; all of them were fixated on the music. They played as if the opus were entirely new. They came to the final movement. When Toscanini laid down his baton, the members of the orchestra rose in applause.
Toscanini did not like noise. So, he stood there trying to hush the musicians. When the clapping ceased, he said to them, "That isn't Toscanini, that's Beethoven; you just never saw him before."
The Colossians writer encourages the Colossian church, "Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him" (Colossians 3.10, NLT). He had already told them they had "been raised to new life with Christ" (v. 1). He had written that their "real life" was "hidden with Christ in God" (v. 3) and that "Christ ... is [their] life."
The spiritual Christian lives in a way to remind persons of God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We live rightly by becoming more like God, more an image of the Divine: not necessarily more religious or moral in the sense many mean, but more godly~godlike.
The Christian, by growing to be more like the Divine Presence, may help Christ come alive for the first time to some person, even as Toscanini skillfully helped his orchestra experience Beethoven as for the first time. The Christian will find the greatest witness to Christ to be his or her own growing into the likeness of the Trinity of Love.
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*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, and their fish, Hope, in Southwest Florida. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. His passion is living a contemplative life and inspiring others to experience a deeper, increasingly-fulfilling relationship with the Christ. He advocates for a spiritually-focused Christianity and the renewal of the focus on the Church toward prioritizing seeking to meet the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons and empathic relating with diverse spiritual traditions.
For replies and biographical information, and submission to "The Light Shines" daily devotionals ~ a ministry of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL, see next page:
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