On a certain day, a man and a woman were given an old, worn out piano which fitted into their kitchen perfectly, and their daughter Abigail did love to play on it. But the piano was exceedingly out of tune after some years of neglect and a rough journey in the back of a clapped out van to cap it all. So Abigail played her beautiful pieces on it, but it sounded mournful, and clangy.
So the man and woman decided to call in the piano tuner. He duly came, and pronounced its condition "dreadful" and he worked on it for several hours... Each string was stretched and wound by its peg at the top, and each string did whine and protest, until it reached its perfect length and tension, and then it did sing beautifully and blend its sound wonderfully with the notes of its brothers and sisters.
Eventually after hours of awful pinging, sighing, and whining, the piano was played and it did sound clear and bright and harmonious, as a piano is supposed to sound. And Abigail and the man and the woman and their son Alex also were exceedingly happy.
Those who have ears to hear, let them hear...
It seemed to me as I listened to the strings of the piano complaining as they were being tuned, that this was a good picture for us humans. We can easily become out of tune, disharmonious and discordant with both God and our fellow human beings, family, neighbours, friends, and it happens, as with a piano, for a number of reasons. Neglect of our spiritual lives is probably the most easy and common cause for this to happen, in small, incremental ways. But also a trauma, or ongoing difficult circumstances around us, can also affect us and send us out of tune. God is the great piano-tuner (?!) and through his Spirit he works on us constantly to bring us to the right place, to be in harmony with him and with our fellows. When we are spiritually in the right place, we make that beautiful, clear tuneful sound that we were designed to make. If we are just a bit off key we can still make a lovely sound, but it is just not as lovely as it is meant to be. But the inevitable result if we don't do something about it when it starts to happen, is that we will end up clangy and horribly discordant and then noone will want to hear that piano played.
Another thing - while the piano is in the process of being tuned, it sounds painful. I don't know if the strings actually feel the pain of being stretched or wound (or maybe in some cases unwound), - but it certainly sounds painful! When God is teaching or moulding us, it can sometimes be painful, or difficult. But what I have found is that, whilst God uses difficult and painful times to teach me things, when he has something to rebuke me about, it is done in the most gentle way a Father could ever use, and is not painful at all, but is merciful and kind.
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