Musically bridged for Valentine's Day

My violinist friend called a couple of weeks ago.  Hearing her voice always makes me happy, and on this particular morning she inquired, “Can you play oboe at an assisted living center on Valentine’s Day?”  The timing of her request was quite curious to me, and my brain instantly retraced some recent steps.  The prior week, I had opened my oboe case for the first time in 2 months.  It took me several days to act on the idea, probably because reacquainting after an absence usually involves some pain.  The mouth muscles need time to regain their groove and find rhythm with the breathing and the fingers.  Really I don’t dissect the problem each time, but suffice it to say that playing after an absence can easily find something feeling out of sync.  Yet interestingly this occasion was different.  My embouchure didn’t experience the expected muscle strains.  The breathing felt comfortable, and there was a fluidity of motion seemingly already reset.  Even my somewhat careless choice of reed didn’t inhibit, as I rather randomly pulled from the pile.  Playing brought fun and pleasure to the afternoon, and I was amazed at how the Lord had bridged the gap on my account.  And when answering my friend’s call, ordinarily I might have doubted that my embouchure would be strong enough to play for a 2-hour event, but the Lord had already shown that my chops would be ready.  He had guided the whole process, so that I could respond to my friend with a resounding “Yes!”  And on that Valentine’s Day, as we played our event, I loved every minute of meeting new people and recognizing some familiar smiles.  It was a wonderful ceremony that celebrated more than 700 years of marriage in total.  It was a display of wedding photos and even a bridal gown from many decades back.  Indeed it was a blessing of the Lord that just happened to include oboe, for which He so carefully prepared me, even while I sat unaware.