21 November

Today's the day when in 1934 Ella Fitzgerald made her singing debut at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York. She went on to become one of the most influential jazz vocalists in the 20th century, winning 13 Grammy Awards over a period of five decades. With a vocal range spanning three octaves, she was noted for her purity of tone, near faultless phrasing and intonation and she was one of the greatest interpreters of classic American songs by the likes of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin.

Who could have guessed at that debut performance in New York what the future would hold? Who could have imagined what greatness lay ahead? In a similar way, when we know God as our Father we don’t know exactly what lies ahead in this life or the next, but we know that in some way great things have been prepared for each of us. Listen to these words from 1 Corinthians chapter 2:

No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him.