Recently my wife (Jamie) and I were given tickets to the Astoria Music Festival. It was a wonderful night and we were blessed to attend. One of the performers was a cellist by the name of Sergey Antonov. Now, I do not know anything about the symphony. In fact, I couldn’t make sense out of the program and was lost during the entire performance. But the one thing I do know is that Antonov is good! Antonov simply did not play the music, the music came from his heart and you see his passion on stage. The music was an expression of his soul.
While he was playing I looked at his biography and this guy was bred to play the cello. He was the youngest cellist to win a gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. In one sense I wondered why this guy came to our little coast town. I am sure that the grandeur of Astoria paled in comparison to what he was accustom. It would be as if Michael Jordan showed up to play at a high school basketball game, Tiger Woods at your local putt-putt, or as if Jesus showed up at church.
Antonov played and I was truly grateful for the experience, I was truly glad for a night away. But then I thought how sad. How many people drove by the Liberty Theatre on that summer night and never even knew that a super star of the symphony was playing in there midst? How many people drive past our churches on Sunday morning and never realize that Jesus is being glorified.
Check out this video from Rick Bundschuh.
