We had an exciting afternoon planned. We were to visit the guitar shop so Asherel could begin testing various instruments. The Giants won the World Series and Asherel was holding her dad to his promise of a new guitar in that event. There were hundreds of guitars to strum- ranging in cost from a little over a hundred to thousands of dollars. I could not so much hear the difference between the varying potential bankruptcy provokers, as feel the difference. The more expensive guitars felt better and played more easily. The wood was heftier and more beautifully grained. The expensive guitars were beautiful. The cheaper guitars looked cheap. Asherel most loved the guitar with the mass produced autograph of John Lennon etched on it.
"Don't look at the outside," we warned her, "Find a guitar that is easy to play, that sounds good, that feels right. How it looks is not important."
My words to my Mom that very afternoon echoed back to me. We were commiserating about the insults of old age upon our bodies, and she mentioned a litany of the less than delightful results of walking on earth for a few decades, one of which was "alligator skin."
"Yes," I agreed, "But it is as it should be. The external wastes away but the internal spirit grows more beautiful each day.... at least in theory."
And here I was reminding Asherel of the same message. Look beyond externals!
After trying many guitars, we went next door to have dinner at the Souper Salad. It appears that it is a favorite haunt of senior citizens. We settled down to our meal with Asherel and I continued my highly illuminating discussion about selecting the right guitar.
Arvo warned her that while the autograph was a nice touch, she may regret it down the road. Perhaps she would grow disenchanted with John Lennon, but the autograph was permanent.
"You must choose a guitar based on its insides," I advised, "It is almost a spiritual connection with your guitar."
She looked at me with skepticism, as though I were not advising with the wealth of fifty years of experience and knowledge and a spirit growing daily more beautiful from the inside out.
"I mean," I explained, "Choosing a guitar is a very individual thing. Each person finds the one that feels just perfect in your hands. You will sense when you have found just the right one."
(This wise advice of course coming from someone who has never, not even once, selected a guitar.)
I went on in this vein, waxing poetic about the music of the soul reaching from the depth of spiritual praise to grasp the beautifully crafted instrument that had been prepared just for her very fingers....when Arvo began to chuckle. He was looking at the bill from the restaurant. He handed it to me and pointed to the top line.
"Senior Citizen discount- 10%" it said.
"WHAT!?" I exclaimed, "They didn't even ask us how old we were! What is a senior in this place- 50? Surely they don't think we are 65. Please tell me I don't look 65!!!" I fell silent, and on the drive home rubbed gently at my clasped hands with their alligator skin.
And this is why God needs to repeat His message so frequently. The human heart is resistant to learning the truths that really matter.
1 Peter 3:4-5 (NIV)
Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. [5] For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.
Deuteronomy 7:6-8 (NIV)
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. [7] The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. [8] But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
