Muted.

Hi Wolfies!!! I almost bought an excellent fur blanket yesterday, like the one in this picture, but refrained. Needless to say though it made me think of you, as I do often.

The original Wolf Queen picture.

So Hubbs and I are getting all settled in. Sure, I still need an area rug for over there, and a floor lamp for over here, but all things considered we are feeling pretty much at home.
That does not mean, of course, that I am not still going to the wrong drawer to look for a chopping knife (I am going where the chopping knives were in our last kitchen), or to the wrong closet to look for a towel ( I am going where the towels were in our last hallway), or the wrong side of the bed at night (not really); slowly but surely though, I am finding my way through my new dwelling.
We are attempting to adjust to the new schedule of him going to work all day and not spending it with me (not fun), I am trying to find a routine in a schedule that isn't routine (hopefully it gets better), and I have about eight big projects I want to tackle and time only for maybe one. Or half of one. Blah.

But it will come.
And despite all the typical challenges that come with moving to a new city (finding the right stores, the right roads, the right knife drawer, etc) we really are so glad to be "home" and closer to all we know so well.
There have also been a couple really great little moments that stuck to my little soul lately.

Like a little Sunday afternoon tea and coffee service we had.

This little guy never ceases to thrill me.

The glory of summertime fruits.

Living rooms starting to look like home.

Feeling all Ina-Garten-ish and making her Roast Chicken.

No caption really needed for this one.

Hubbs and I went to Chicago this last weekend for a number of things, one of them being to see the excellent Chris Botti in concert. He is one of the world's best living trumpet players right now and since Hubbs is a trumpet player and I love all things jazz, it made perfect sense since we were in the city anyway.

I dislike cities, have I told you this? They make me feel claustrophobic, like I need to wash my hands, and very much like an imposter.
But Jesus is helping me with the last one.

Anywho, we were there and are so very glad we went as both of us agreed it was one of the best concerts we have ever been to. Which is saying something. We have been to a lot of concerts.

At one point he had this insanely good violinist join him and they played this song called Emmanuel.
A really moving tune, I leaned over to Hubbs half way through and said to him "Kind of interesting this song is called Emmanuel, isn't it?" (Watch it here--and I apologize for any nasty ad beforehand. They can be unacceptable.)
I don't believe Chris Botti is a Believer. He makes no mention of it, so I can assume. And I don't know if he wrote this song or not, I would assume not, but I still found it curious that, right there, in the middle of this grand musical display is a word that means "God with us." I think I wrote something entitled this at Christmas once and it is such a good thought. Wherever you are, in whatever circumstance you find yourself in, God is with you. "He is at your right hand" the Bible says (I wrote something about that, too. No surprise.).  Sitting right there, he was there, too. God with me. At my right hand. Listening to Chris Botti wail out "Emmanuel."

A neat reminder.

So trumpets have these things called Mutes, I guess (Hubbs told me). My favorite trumpet sound is when the bell has in it what is called a Harmon Mute. It's the classic jazz sound.
Listen to it here when he plays "Hallelujah."
And while I think it sounds so neat and chill and.......sultry, if I do say so myself, it absolutely IS muted. It doesn't have that glorious "brilliance" or "shine" as a trumpet can. It's not crisp, clear. It's blurry.
It's muted. So appropriately named.

And it made me think.

Romans 8 says that "All creation groans" because it was "subjected to frustration" at the Fall (verses 22 and 20), which would go to mean that THIS TRUMPET is just groaning. Not singing. Not jubilating. Not praising.
For as excellent as it sounds, and great at Chris Botti is, it is not what it could be. Isn't that mind blowing?

To make a connection.............it's muted.

It's a blurry picture.
There is something lost, something lacking.
All of it has been subjected to frustration.

Doesn't that make you homesick for what a SINGING trumpet will sound like? For how well a non-groaning instrument will sound?

And then it occurred to me. When Jesus comes back, he is coming with trumpets (I Thessalonians 4:16 and others)!! Not blurred trumpets, no way. Not groaning trumpets, not frustrated trumpets. But loud, brilliant, clear, tolling trumpets.
And what a jubilation that will be. Our ears will hear for the first time a sound that is not muted. The scales will have fallen.

But then it also occurred to me.

Our song will be the same as it was the other night. As it should be every day.

Just like how here on this earth "we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we will see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known" (I Corinthians 13:12), we sing our songs to the Lord in part. We only know the half of it.
Here I sing and I write about Hallelujah.
I sing and I talk about God Being With Us.

But I sing and I talk and I write and I know all muted. In part. Those things are entities that, I pray, glorifies God to the best of it's ability, but it is not brilliant yet. It does not shine as it will, it is not yet fully glorified as it will be.

But my song will be the same.
I will sing with no muting doubts. No fears that blur. No distortions that cast a shadow.

And then I will know it's truth in full.
I will see clearly it's Emmanuel.
I will sing unmuted it's Hallelujah.