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!!
