Orchestras are fabulous. The music they make is masterful. It’s a group effort of supreme cooperation.
Many of the instruments in the orchestra, however, are only heard in the blending of sounds between instruments. We recognize the French horn, the violin, and the flute, but often as part of the larger piece of music.
It’s the percussion that’s unmistakable. The tympani thrums with resonance, the bass drum is our beat, and no one can miss the crashing vibrations of a set of cymbals.
The concert xylophone is one percussion instrument that rings out over every other musician. Its bright sound carries well, and there’s no mistaking it for any other. These simple wooden or fiberglass bars struck by rubber mallets send sound down resonating tubes and out across the auditorium, ringing in concertgoers’ ears.
1 Corinthians 13:1 says:
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
Love speaks with the voice of a xylophone, sweet and bright, and heard above everything else. The gong and the cymbal grab people’s attention, but it’s love they need to hear. We find that love in Christ.
1 John 1:9 shows the way:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We’ve only donned our gloves and lifted our mallets. Salvation is the first step. God’s prepared us to ring out in love, but the mallets must be wielded by us.
1 John 3:16 is love in its purest form:
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”
How do we lay down our lives for our brothers? We inconvenience ourselves to make others’ lives better. We skip the coffee shop so that we can feed the hungry. We forego a new car to equip the church nursery. We postpone our golf date to go on a mission trip.
We hold up our mallets, and we drive them hard onto our xylophone, so that our love can be heard by anyone passing by.
When we truly love, the world will notice, because it will be different from what everyone else does.
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