For my Dad
I play the alto sax. I started playing the saxophone when I was 9 years old. If I’ve done my math correctly I’ve played the sax for … a really long time. There were years when I never opened the case. There were years when I practiced every day. I’m not an amazing musician, but I’m not bad to listen to either.
I own an enviable saxophone. I own a Selmer Mark VII, which to sax players is pretty cool. My parents bought it for me my senior year of high school. In my mind though, it was a gift from my dad. I had a Bundy saxophone, which in simplistic terminology is a basic beginner horn. By my senior year, Mr Bundy was pretty beat up, and I was beyond what it offered. I was preparing to go to college and I promised my dad that if he bought me a new horn I would play all four years of college.
The search began.
We didn’t live in a large city, and to try out saxophones of the caliber we were looking at, we had to travel to the closest large city which was about an hour away. So we would drive into the city, go to the music store and bring home an instrument for me to play for a week. Then we would drive back, and exchange that sax for a different brand of equal quality. We did that mulitple times. My choices were finally narrowed down to the Selmer and a Buffet saxophone. The differences in the two were described (according to my recollection) in that the Selmer was better for Jazz, and the Buffet was better for concert play. I basically played concert, though I was involved in our high school jazz band. I wasn’t proficient at jazz. The whole making up what you are to play just by being given a key signature was a bit beyond me. The Buffet seemed the more logical choice, as well as more within my parents financial boundaries.
I don’t remember which horn I had been playing that final week. I just knew my dad was going to the store alone. He was taking back the instrument I had been playing and he would return with the instrument that I would get to keep. I don’t remember the whole conversation, but I do remember telling my dad my heart longed for the Selmer, but I liked the Buffet as well, and I would be happy either way. I believed my dad would bring home the Buffet.
But he brought home the Selmer.
I’ve never felt so spoiled in my life. It’s the one gift that always, I mean always, reminds me of the depth of love my parents, and especially my dad has for me. I still play that sax. I’m a member of our woship team, and toodle away every other week. I should practice more. The reality is that I play for me. And my dad, though he lives several states away and doesn’t hear me play. That sax makes a sweet sound. Admittedly, with a more proficient player the sound would be sweeter, but it couldn’t ring out with anymore love.
Whenever I think about my saxophone and my dad’s love, I am always reminded that God loves me even more; that he sacrificed greatly for me, even more than my own father. Accepting God’s love has never been difficult because I was gifted a tremendous example. I am blessed beyond measure to be given an earthly father that loved so deeply. May the sweet songs I play on my saxophone be, forever, a gift of worship and gratitude.
