Christopher
Locke buys old trumpets, trombones, and French horns and transforms them into
acoustic amplifiers for iPhones and iPads. His creations are modeled on the
trumpetlike speakers used in the first phonographs during the late 1800s. Music
played through Christopher’s AnalogTelePhonographers has a “louder, cleaner,
richer, deeper sound” than what is heard from the small speakers in the digital
devices. Along with being interesting works of art, these salvaged brass
instruments require no electrical power as they amplify the music people love
to hear.
Paul’s
words to the followers of Jesus in Corinth remind us today that in living for
Christ and sharing Him with others, we are not the music but only a megaphone.
“For we do not preach ourselves,” Paul wrote, “but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:5). Our purpose is not
to become the message, but to convey it through our lives and our lips. “We
have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be
of God and not of us” (v.7).
If an
old horn can amplify music, then perhaps our flawed lives can magnify the
goodness of God. We’re the megaphone; the music and the power come from Him!
Nothing is unusable in God’s hands. (RBC)
