The Death of an Old Friend

Every night as my 20 month old son takes his bath, I take my guitar and play a hand full of songs that I’ve managed to figure out how to play ranging from “Twinkle, Twinkle” to “Here I am to Worship.” Well Tuesday was no different. 8:00 pm rolled around and we headed up the stairs, he got into the bathtub and I started playing. We sang and played just like every other night. When Will was finished I leaned my guitar against the bathroom sink and lifted him out of the tub, dried him off and turned around to drain the tub. In that split second he reached out to grab my guitar. Everything suddenly began to move in slow motion. His poor little hand couldn’t handle the weight of the guitar and it slowly fell to its death.

The moment the head of the guitar hit the floor, it instantly snapped off. Will stood there completely still, not saying anything for several seconds. He was shocked. “OH NO! Broke…” he said in his sad little voice. You could see that he felt SO bad. I picked him up and said “It’s okay buddy. I should have put it away.” We moved on to his bedroom and got ready for bed.

In the few minutes that followed, I thought about what had just happened and got very emotional and began to cry a little. I know what you’re thinking. It’s just a dumb guitar! I thought the same thing. But I think this is why I cried. First I felt bad that my little boy felt bad about what he had done. I just wanted to make him know that it was okay. He is so precious to me and I love him dearly. Secondly, I realized the my dear old friend that had been with me for 10 years was gone. I loved that guitar. It had been with me through some really good times and some pretty tough times, too. It was goofy with me, It was sad with with me, but most of all it took me before the Lord to worship Him. Those moments of confession and praise have been so important in my life and my guitar helped take me there. Well, I will miss my old friend. Until I find a new guitar I think I’ll be singing acapella!

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