How Sweet the Sound

(Preface--This year I have chosen to embark on the 52 Week Project in which I will take one meaningful picture each week throughout the year. I have also committed to writing a "short" description of each photo's significance. The following post marks the beginning of my journey.)

52 Week Project 2012 ~ 1/52

A close friend gave this wind chime to my mom for Christmas this year, and it conveniently hangs right below my bedroom window. With each wintery gust, it never fails to send an array of charming notes up my way. Every night this week I've fallen asleep to its distinct tune; upon waking, I hear it as well. Loud and clear. I can't ignore it, escape it, nor deny it. Not that I would want to after that of which it has come to remind me.

What is this sweet sound you may ask? None other but the melodic pitches of English poet and clergyman John Newton's classic hymn Amazing Grace. You know how it goes: "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me..."

Now, if the wind chime outside my window obnoxiously chimed any old, random tune, I'd probably muster up enough ugliness to chop off its strings, thus muting its noise, and make it look like an accident, a natural disaster of sorts on an exceedingly smaller scale. You see, I'm the kind of girl who values her sleep, makes it a top priority, and becomes surprisingly agitated when someone or something deprives her of, disrupts her from, or infringes upon that precious time of her much needed slumber.

However, these chimes have had quite a different effect on the attitude of my heart. Each time the wind blows through them, it seems to me as if the Holy Spirit is surrounding our house, rushing all around, reminding me that only by God's amazing grace am I alive today, both physically and spiritually speaking. In thinking about the Spirit and wind, I found that throughout the Bible, 111 times in the New Testament in fact, the Greek word "pneuma" or "wind" has symbolized the Holy Spirit's presence. I know he is still very much alive and working in mysterious ways today. Just like the wind, we can't see Him but we can hear Him, feel Him, and see his effects. And for that, I give total praise and thanks to the Lord of lords and King of kings, my Savior, my defender, my everything. Amazed by its sweet sound, God's grace has saved me, and the wind chimes below my window have so beautifully reminded me of that. Just in time for the new year with its new beginnings. Because of God's grace, we can be made new.

May we always stand amazed and never forget Ephesians 2:8-10, which says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."