Article June 12, 2017 Issue

God’s comforting touch dissolves grief

Deborah Huebsch

After receiving a phone call telling me that someone precious to me had died, I was devastated. In my grief I opened my heart to God in prayer and asked for help dealing with this overwhelming sense of loss. Comfort came in the most gentle, tender, and unusual way.

The message was, “Think about a Beethoven symphony.” My next thought was, “What does that have to do with death?” As I thought about this question, I recalled that Ludwig van Beethoven’s hearing had increasingly deteriorated until he was profoundly deaf. It’s been said that he spoke of “hearing” his compositions and simply writing down what he “heard”—like a musical scribe of sorts. From that standpoint, his symphonies have always existed independently of the material condition.

I’ve found this to be a helpful analogy for an important spiritual truth: God’s spiritual creations, which include each of us, have always existed independently of a humanly discernible presence. The thing I took from this moment of prayer was that in a way, my friend—and in fact everyone—can be seen as a symphony: without beginning and without end.

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