Did you hear it? Can you still hear it? Are you listening to it whispering in the azaleas and resonating on your skin? Have you turned your head at the sound of something familiar humming in the dough as it is proofing or in the inchworms as they hang almost imperceptibly from their threads? Do you hear it? The Resurrection Symphony is filling the atmosphere.
When you hear a note played on a musical instrument, you are actually not hearing just one tone. The main tone you hear is the lowest and loudest one called the fundamental. Along with that fundamental tone are other frequencies, called overtones, which occur at predictable mathematical intervals above the fundamental. We don’t hear these as different notes of course, but they’re there. And they like to talk to their friends. Stay with me…
Mr. A String vibrates at 440 Hz and has overtones at 880 Hz and 1320 Hz. Mr. E String vibrates at 330 Hz, with overtones at 660 Hz, 990 Hz, and…drum roll please…1320 Hz. Because they share an overtone at 1320 Hz, when Mr. A String starts to sing, Mr. E String will want to join in. Mr. A String and Mr. E String have overtones that match other strings, and those strings have overtones that match other strings, and so on and so on. If nothing impedes the strings, the ones with related overtones will start to vibrate along with the one that was initially played. This phenomenon is called sympathetic resonance, or sympathetic vibrations.
When the stone was rolled away from the tomb on Easter morning, the Resurrection Tone was sounded: the one through whom and for whom all things were created is making all things new. God spoke into the formless and void universe at the dawn of time and it reverberated all things into existence. Now, the immutable resonance of Christ’s resurrected, beating heart resounds the overtones in all things, tones of his glory and of new creation, so that they can’t help but sing out “Hallelujah!” And the cacophony of our sin can never drown out that divine three-part harmony of salvation.
Because of this Resurrection Symphony, we begin to hear how all of the goodness and beauty and joy that we behold are but sympathetic resonances of the One Who Sings Over Us. And all the evil and ugliness and sorrow we encounter are tense, dissonant chords that will find their unequivocal resolve as the melodic line of Christ pulls everything into tune.
Listen closely. You will hear it. We live a resurrection life and we sing a resurrection song. Lord, tune our hearts to sing your praise, and let them resonate by your grace all of our days.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Michael