Many years ago my late wife and I visited Justin’s in Albany which features world class jazz musicians.  It soon became a favorite place of ours with cool jazz and hot Cajun food.  It consists of two rooms, one where people mainly drink and socialize, the other where people eat dinner and listen to a few musicians packed into a small corner near the front.  Live music always trumps recordings and this jazz is played in the traditional format of theme, individual improvisations, and finale.   It was predictable and new every time.

One time I noticed a young woman had positioned herself up close to the musicians and was sketching them.  I was surprised by what I saw on her pad.  Instead of drawings of musicians, she was showing musical notes swirling around them.  The musicians were not drawn in correct body proportions, but reminded me of something Picasso might draw.   There on the paper were her impressions of these people playing jazz.  She must have been very good because the pictures made me realize something.

What she was doing was quite similar to what a person of faith does, in fact was a visual demonstration of it.  She looked at those musicians and saw patterns and relationships that she was then able to visually portray in an appealing picture.  Similarly, a person of faith looks at the things s/he sees all around him/her and finds relationships and patterns there.  These relationship and patterns then are taken by that individual and formed into a foundation of faith.  S/he becomes convinced and begins to tell others that all of life is not just random happenings.  There is someone or rather Someone who is at work making music for those who can “see” it.