Monday, December 9, 2013

THE MUSIC OF SALVATION - On how my guitar is like God's blessed gift of salvation.





          It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen and I knew if I could get my hands on it, I wouldn’t stop practicing until I could play it well.  My lucky big brother had gotten a new guitar for his 16th birthday and I wanted it – bad.  But of course, it was new and exciting to him too so he disappeared into his bedroom and played it for hours.  Sometimes I watched him and it didn’t seem that hard; push the strings down at one end and strum them on the other.  How tough could that be?

          Life went on and my brother got busy living the life of a popular high school age boy with friends and sports and cars – but his guitar stayed home – with ME.  With his permission, I could use it if I tuned it and put it back away when I was done.  And play it I did.

          When you’re learning to play the guitar it sounds absolutely horrible. It takes time for your fingertips to toughen up and until they do, it’s quite painful.  You have to develop strength in your hands to compress the strings so they ring clearly.  Until then they just produce a dull thud.

          From my brother’s birthday in September that year I played whenever I got the chance.  I played my fingertips off – literally.  I played until my fingers bled and then played more.

          When Christmas morning came that year, we all went out to see what Santa had left for us and I can remember like it was yesterday.  There was a beautiful black guitar case behind the tree with a bow and MY name on it!  I could hardly breathe as I opened it and inside was the most beautiful full size guitar I’d ever seen.  You could just have thrown away any other gifts that year because all I wanted to do was go to my room and play. I kissed my mom and dad profusely and at the first opportunity I found a place to bond with my new beauty.

          I played for anybody that asked.  I played and sang.  I wrote songs; funny songs, happy songs, sad songs, love songs.  Every emotion I felt, I expressed in my music.  And let’s face it; an 11 year-old’s musical pallet is not too sophisticated.  But it was all me.
 

          I was thinking today that the gift of salvation is a bit like that guitar.  The instrument called Salvation is in itself beautiful and it is given by God to us as a free gift.  The potential to enjoy it fully is all there but it must be pulled out of its case and carefully, systematically practiced.  It takes time, knowledge about how it’s supposed to be played, and joyful discipline as something crude and rough at the beginning slowly develops into what the instrument was designed to sound like.

          I have a friend who is a piano teacher and she says, “It’s not ‘Practice makes perfect.’ It’s “Perfect practice makes perfect.’”

          As we grow in love for and knowledge of our blessed Redeemer and we move forward in following His ways more truly each day, we begin to produce the lovely music God intended when he gave us the gift.  Often the process is painful and trying but the music is growing sweeter and more beautiful than we ever could have imagined!  Until one day, when the music that we sought to practice perfectly in our lives will indeed BE perfectly played with all the saints and angels in eternity!

 

          And what a day of rejoicing that will be!!

 


4 comments:

  1. Wonderful illustration that I've never thought of before. Thank you for making the concept of salvation and sanctification more concrete in my thinking.

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  2. Dad and I so felt the joy of memories as we read this. I have often tried to express to people how much music can minister to and help teenagers through those hard years as they can express their emotions in the creation of something of beauty-music.To compare to salvation makes a great, meaningful analogy.

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    Replies
    1. You and dad fostered that love for music! So many memories of watching you both sing! Of you letting us blast the HiFi with Christian music. Of encouragement to use any gift we had for the Lord! Thank you guys for that. I love you so much!

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