The Music Wars

I heard Stairway To Heaven today and it made me smile.
It wasn’t the song itself that made me smile.
It was the music wars that ensued years ago.

My husband interviewed for jobs before we were married.
He traveled all over the country interviewing for an engineering position.
He chose a company that was in Pennsylvania.
He wanted us to remain close to all that was familiar.

We looked for an apartment that would be ours after we were married, but his until then.
We set out on a Saturday, months after we were engaged, and began our search.
I knew that the first apartment we saw was the one we would choose.
My soon-to-be-husband didn’t operate that way and needed to see others first.

All day, we went from apartment to apartment but none measured up to the first one.
We signed the lease that afternoon.
He moved in after graduation from college, four months before we were married.

We bought a sofa and a kitchen table with four chairs.
There was no bedroom furniture to speak of, just a bed frame and small chest of drawers.
We picked out our bedroom set, which was to be delivered right before our wedding.

I brought a few things with me to our apartment: my mother’s hope chest and my piano.
In our apartment complex, all the entrances were outside on the first floor.
We lived on the second floor with our staircase inside as part of the living space.

Nice, but not practical when you had to move a large item up those stairs.
I never imagined how difficult it would be to get my piano up our apartment stairs.
The piano movers were very gracious and agreed to move the hope chest as well.

The hope chest was rectangular and easy to lift and move into our bedroom.
The piano, on the other hand, needed to be turned at the very top of the stairs.
The wrought iron railing, though decorative, was not conducive to pivoting pianos.
I watched as the men lifted the piano up the narrow staircase.

I was a bit concerned when I saw them stuck at the very top.
There was a coat closet at the top of the stairs and the little railing.
There was nowhere to go and not enough room to turn this large instrument.
We have to take off the railing, I heard one man say, though the other one disagreed.

The one who disagreed thought that they could lift the piano above the small railing.
The piano was to go on that wall anyway, three feet from where they were now standing.
I watched the sweat form on their brows as they were literally holding up the piano.

With grunts and groans, they managed to lift the piano over the railing.
They placed it where I wanted it to go and went to get the piano bench from the truck.
I thanked them and tipped them and couldn’t wait to play my piano in our apartment.
It sounded wonderful.
I was home.

I would play the piano during the day, when everyone seemed to be at work.
Everyone except the man who lived below us.
Either he didn’t like my playing, or he did not approve of my choice of music.
He would turn his stereo up very loud to drown me out it seemed.

The first time he did it, I thought it was coincidence.
When it happened over and over, I knew it wasn’t.
I would play an old Carol King song and he would play Pink Floyd.
I would play some classical music and he would play Led Zeppelin.

On and on it went; the music wars.
I did not intend to engage him in this battle.
Sometimes, I wouldn’t hear him come back home; until his bass rattled my dishes.
My husband laughed when I told him the story; not the reaction I wanted from him.

We moved into our first home ten months after we were married.
I am sure the man downstairs rejoiced the day we left.
Hearing Stairway To Heaven today, made me remember.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? (Psalm 137:1-4)

Then I saw a Lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne…He came and took the scroll from the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. And when He had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song…(Revelation 5:6-9)

When God’s people were in captivity, there was no use for an instrument of joy.
The Babylonians taunted the people to sing songs about their beautiful city.
They could not sing because their city was destroyed.

God provides redemption through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.
One day, at the close of all things Jesus, the Lamb that was slain, will reach for the scroll.
The title deed of the earth will be handed to the only One who is worthy.
Jesus, the Lamb that was slain.

The harps that were laid down are picked up again.
There is reason for joy.
Everything is new.
The final glorious redemption of God is about to begin.