One of the most famous portraits of Hungarian pianists and composer Franz Liszt pictures him rhapsodically playing the piano to a group of adoring women and male admirers, a bust of Ludwig Van Beethoven sitting before him.  It is an apt window into who Liszt was.  Consummately Romantic, possessed with extraordinary musical acumen, a person who perhaps more than any other captured the Zeitgeist of his time, Liszt, whose birthday we remembered yesterday should, whatever else we think of him, inspire us to gasp at the power of the human imagination.

     An imagination, I add, powered in turn by humanity's creation in the image of God.  We may frown upon Liszt's personal transgressions, we may wonder what he really wanted, but we cannot dismiss the immensely present vision of God that his work represents to us.  While Liszt may not have always been aware of his connection with God, there is no doubt that in his remarkable ability to create melody and song, he tells us about him.
     Yes, we may not see God visibly, and yes, we may at times have no empirical evidence of him, but in the weight of the world's power and mystery we cannot dismiss the possibility of his factuality.
     Play on, Franz Liszt.