TODAY THE WORDS ARE MUSICAL CHAIRS

TODAY THE WORDS are MUSICAL CHAIRS. If you are like me, I smiled when this came to me as today’s topic for the blog. As a child, especially at parties, I loved musical chairs. For all of you who played musical chairs, this should bring back a lot of memories of your own. First, we would start with as many chairs as guests less one. Someone would start the music and around the chairs we would go, trying to make sure we were always in front of a chair when the music stopped. There was a lot of giggles, moving fast and then slowing down, a lot of awkward moves, and the funniest of times when two people tried to sit down in the same chair. The child left standing was eliminated and another chair was taken away and here we went again when the music started. The excitement grew more and more intense as the number of chairs were pulled away. We all got serious when it was down to three or four chairs. The game was officially on!! We started walking in a bent form to be closer to the chairs and our ears were tuned to the music. For all of you that played, you know exactly what I am writing about……intensity at its best. Musical chairs would almost  become a battle ground and “last man sitting instead of standing” was the mission. 

Now for the deeper thought……Life is like this childhood game…..musical chairs and this is why I think it is. We start in life’s adventure like it’s a game, moving around the chairs of life, laughing and not taking it so seriously. We play, we laugh, we giggle, and then life’s game starts eliminating! We move, we lose friends and family members, and we change schools, then jobs and sometimes spouses. Life, as these things are pulled out of the game, becomes more serious. We experience the awkwardness of bending trying to be successful and even experience awkward moves such as health issues, work losses, or family situations, but we keep trying to get us a chair to sit down. The music of life starts playing again and we have to start moving. This is a reflection when we lose a loved one and we grieve, but at some point we have to start moving again. At the end of our lives, with families as players of life, one of the couple is eliminated and one is left to sit in the final chair. Even though we have laughed and giggled and it looks like we have won, it has a sadness to lose the other one. 

Since I see positive in each situation, I see musical chairs in a little different light. If we live our life according to God’s plan, each one that is eliminated from this earthly life obtains a small throne in Heaven and that is better than any earthly hard wooden chair. Let’s be ready for the music to start in Heaven when the time comes and we will all be winners.