As long as there have been people, there has been music. From the dawn of time, men have tried to explain music and how it communicates. Music is used in healing physical and emotional problems as well as helping us center ourselves spiritually. St. Francis said, "I am a hole in a flute that the Christ's breath blows through. Listen to this song."

Sometimes we need music and, at other times, we need to be the providers of the music. All the sermons and all the theology in the world don't mean a thing until it moves from the head to the heart.

One of my favorite poems was written by Myra "Brooks" Welch. The poem is entitled "The Touch of the Master's Hand." It is about an old violin at an auction that appears to be worth very little until an old man comes along and plays a beautiful song on it. After that happens, the bidding starts to rise quite high. Confused people start to wonder aloud why the price is skyrocketing and the explanation, of course, is that the violin was touched by the master's hand. The closing lines speak to our lives and they go like this...

"And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin, Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin, A 'mess of pottage,' a glass of wine; a game - and he travels on. 'He is going' once, and 'going twice, He's going and almost gone.' But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that's wrought by the touch of the Master's hand."