Bible School memories are wrapped in melody for me. Little did Best Beloved, my brother and I know that singing our eager young hearts out round the old fleamarket piano would eventually take us far and wide in itinerant ministry. Early on, Oliver one day rather diffidently presented me with some lyrics. I was surprised by how much the words moved me. My brother a poet – who would have thought it? And it was only the first of many. Sometimes he would have a melody, sometimes I would hear one as he read the lyrics and before long, these songs became a signature part of our repertoire.
Since we all lived on the same premises, fellow students couldn’t help but hear us practise, often late into the night, and it wasn’t long before Rufaro, as we now called ourselves, had an enthusiastic invitation to minister. I will never forget how nervous I was as I sat down at my piano that first time. It was an Easter Convention, and it looked like the whole town had come to celebrate. Surreptitiously I removed my glasses – blurry vision was preferable to seeing people’s reactions if we messed up! That weekend our ministry was well and truly launched, and yes, sometimes we DID mess up, but we soon discovered that people were more interested in our hearts than our perfection. We learned to laugh at our mistakes and forgive ourselves and each other, instantly. Of course, we also tried NOT to repeat them 😊. Perhaps our most important lesson was a truly simple one – ministry happens when Jesus is given first place. We also learned that “ego” and “team” don’t go together!
I still love to sing my brother’s song, sometimes through tears of repentance: “Beautiful thoughts fill my mind; When I try to get them out, words are hard to find, but all I really want is to say ‘I love you more than anything’ – but things get in my way.”
I have a feeling Psalm 45v1 was his inspiration: “Beautiful thoughts fill my mind as I recite these lines for the King. These words come from my tongue as from the pen of a skilled writer.” As magnificent as these sentiments are, I find the KJV even more poetic: “My tongue shall be the pen of a ready writer.”
I suppose it’s because it somehow suggests someone eager to praise the King of Heaven, the One who is our good Shepherd, always out “to seek and to save that which was lost.” It is He who parts the seas and we escape while the enemy drowns; it is He who walks on our stormy waters, then enables us to do the same. It is He who says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more!”
My “ready writer” runs out of words for this incomparable One, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, our Rose of Sharon and Pearl of Great Price, the Sun of righteousness risen over us with healing in his wings, the Alpha and Omega – our Beginning and our end!
