Issue 1397 – The Sound of Music – March 16, 2024
Last night, Kathy and I attended a local presentation of Rogers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. Although I have seen the movie version many times, I had never seen the stage presentation.
Sister Maria didn’t look like Julie Andrews, and the play differed from the movie. That was to be expected; movie sets have a lot more flexibility than a theatre stage.
The full von Trapp story is different than what the musical portrays, although the family did flee the Nazis. Certain liberties, of course, were taken to turn their story into a stage play and movie. That is to be expected.
We enjoyed the presentation, although the venue they used always feels a little too crowded, and the rows of seats were too close together to be comfortable.
Afterwards, Kathy and I talked about the sets. In a couple of scenes, there is NAZI paraphernalia displayed, including two very large flags. The Third Reich’s takeover of Austria is why the Von Trapp family fled the country, so the use of the symbols is a necessary part of the story.
The thing that struck us both was our visceral reaction to the Nazi images. Neither of us was alive during that time period, but we have known many who were. Soldiers and their families, concentration camp survivors, and more have been parts of our lives over the years. We also know of many family members who lost their lives to that conflict.
The evil that was the Third Reich just seemed to ooze out of the flags. Perhaps more frightening was realizing how many ordinary people could get behind such a regime (and many others throughout history.)
Left to our own devices, people can be led terribly astray. We don’t need Satan to make us do it; we can go there all on our own. This thing we call humanity is capable of the most selfless of things and the most depraved evil.
God warned Adam and Eve in the Garden about it.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17
The world tells us to follow our hearts, but our hearts can take us to very ungodly places. The people who followed the NAZIs were not necessarily evil by themselves. Many thought they were doing the right thing.
Jeremiah understood the timeless truth,
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:10
We need Christ to redeem us and the Holy Spirit to indwell us. Our broken nature and propensity to sin can lead us far from God. Even “nice” people are at risk.
Christians still struggle with sin and can be deceived, but we can rejoice in Christ’s mercy. We can be thankful that The Lord is crafting us to be more like Him day by day, moment by moment.
We can be grateful that we aren’t what we once were even though we are not yet all we can be.
Praise His holy name.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. Your value in God’s eyes is so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that his plan for heaven will not be complete without you.
__________________________________________
Please like and share this post with friends and your circle of influence. Also, feel free to comment.
Subscribe today: https://mailchi.mp/f27bbeb09c22/ gleanings-1
For an archive of many back issues, visit our website at http://gleaningsfromtheword.com.
___________________________________________
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV)