A gift in St. Eustache Church

On a lovely afternoon in Paris, Ben and I had been exploring for a while and were on our way back “home” when we discovered an enormous and beautiful church — St. Eustache Church, as it turns out. Outside of the grand exterior, there was a French woman singing American songs. We listened and watched for a while, taking it all in, and decided to explore the inside.

Once inside – Ben seeing the organ- looked at me with a grin and declared that he would “pay a lot of money for an organ concert in this church.” Classic Ben.

As we looked around and did our usual check of the place, we sat for a second to soak it up we noticed some others also sitting.

We looked at each other and both stayed seated. “Let’s just wait and see.”

We stayed seated, and more people flowed in. It was a Sunday afternoon, so I prepared for the possibility of us attending a Catholic Mass instead of a possible organ concert. However, soon enough, a man walked over to the organ and turned it on. Voila! We were in business.

The beautiful St. Eustache Church was filled with the music of the organ for 30 minutes. What a lovely surprise — serendipity indeed.

It was my fist time really hearing an organ played live. What used to sound like harsh, unappealing notes all together became something grand and wonderful. It was lovely and powerful…. But being with Ben in that moment made it all the better. He was on top of the world. Completely absorbed in the music. He was given a rare energy and zest for life with that perfect surprise. Praise God for little gifts such as these.