Planning a little trip? Remember to take enough clothes, shoes, undergarments, outerwear, toiletries, and of course, money to cover the days you’ll be away. Oh, and one more thing, pack your tambourine!
Say what? Yep, that noise maker defined by Wikipedia as “a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called zils”. Why on God’s green earth would I tell you to pack a tambourine? THAT is exactly why! Huh? Let me elaborate.
In our staff chapel today—oh, what a privilege it is to be part of a church staff—we explored Exodus 14 when Pharoah FINALLY let the Israelites go, only to have serious second thoughts and soon send his army in pursuit of the Israelites to bring them back to Egypt (I mean, what was Pharoah thinking? No laborers?). We reviewed that after escaping Pharoah’s army through the Red Sea, Moses sang praises to the Lord (Exodus 15) as we often do after a trying time. But what did Moses’ sister, Miriam, do? When Moses began singing praises, she followed behind with the other women singing and shaking her tambourine! She brought a tambourine? Seriously? In the rush to get out of Egypt, she actually brought a tambourine? Far be it from me to question her packing list, but I’m thinking that a tambourine probably wouldn’t have made the top five on my list of “must takes”.
What does packing a tambourine even mean? I think it means to KNOW that God is ALWAYS worthy of our praise and that we are to be “on the ready” to share our joys and our rejoicing. A tambourine doesn’t have to be a physical object; it can simply be a desire to share our love for the Lord and all the ways we’ve seen His glory in our lives.
So how often lately have I actually taken out my tambourine in praise of the One who gave it all? When my first two children, Taylor and Blair, were born healthy, I thanked God and praised Him for my beautiful blessings. When my son, Jeff, was born with two holes in his heart and the surgeons repaired both, I praised God and shook my tambourine. When his twin brother, Jon, suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm years later and became a walking miracle, I shook my tambourine until I thought my fingers would break. In fact, each time he reached a new milestone and we witnessed another miracle, my entire family and our friends joined in with their tambourines. When the doctors discovered an aneurysm in my brain and repaired it before it could rupture, I wept, and through my tears, I shook my tambourine. Lately, though, I think my tambourine has been a little silent, and it has nothing to do with Him, but everything to do with me.
I know that I have been blessed far more than I deserve, and I’ve seen more miracles than most people, so I need to daily shake that tambourine and let His love shine through me so that the world will know that I am His and He is mine, and NOTHING can ever change that. Miriam trusted that He would deliver and packed her tambourine; I think it's time for me to blow the dust off mine.
Exodus 15: 2
The Lord is my strength and my defense;
He has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
(Inspiration for this post from Gaylyn Kelly, our Director of College and Young Adults)
