Harmony pt. 1

I desire to share with you another illustration from my sister.

Since she was diagnosed with cancer she was asked to begin writing her journey, it has grown legs of its own, and she now entitles each 'booklet' "This Adventure Called Life" . I can easily see her writings becoming a book. While my mom was here I got to get a sneak peek at the most recent entitled 'Harmony'. It was a story that she had already shared verbally with me and it still has the same comforting and encouraging effect on me.

I have her permission to quote her here, but will do so in three blogs as it is quite long. I also will only highlight the key points of her illustration - perhaps if this wets your appetite to read more of her writings, I could connect you! :D

"In the wee hours of the morning on Saturday the 8th Ryan crawled into bed with us. Ryan went back to sleep and the Lord began speaking into my spirit. The first part of the analogy was how we are like a piano.

When we are born into this world we are born without a middle C key on our keyboard. We are spiritually dead, separated from God. Without the middle C key the rest of our keys are out of tune with each other as well as other pianos. Our lives do not make beautiful music, only noise.

When the Spirit of God draws us to Himself revealing our sin, we come to understand that it is only by grace we are saved. It is not of ourselves, it is a gift of God. When that happens we become part of His family, sons and daughters in His Kingdom. This is like Him placing a brand new middle C key on our keyboard. A perfectly tuned key, the very life of Jesus taking up residence in our heart, the center of our being.

The Lord then begins to tune all the other notes to that middle C. Not all the keys on the keyboard are exactly the same. There are seven notes in several octaves. But they all must be brought into harmony with that central note, the middle C. God's goal is that we become like Christ, that every area of our lives be in harmony with Christ's life in us.

The tuning process can be very painful, not only to listen to, but also on the piano physically (if it had the ability to feel :) ). For the master tuner hits each key softly, and then with great force. This is to reveal any weakness in the mechanism of the hammers and other parts involved in the playing of the piano. It is better for something to break while tuning it rather than during a performance. When something is loose he tightens it, if it breaks he replaces it, if it needs to be adjusted he fixes it.

This is where we tend to dig in our heels. We don't like the noise coming from our lives during the 'tuning process'. The words spoken in anger, the pride, jealousy, lust and selfishness that are revealed as the Master Tuner touches each key area of our life. Sometimes we may feel that God has deserted us because of all the yucky sounds coming out of our lives, but in reality it is the Lord's hand revealing where we are 'out of tune' with Him.

....
Once the piano is tuned the owner can then play beautiful music. The piano responds to His touch. Fast and slow, soft and loud, staccato and rests. The Creator, Tuner, Owner, Composer Musician, and Conductor are all the Lord. He made us, and therefore owns us, He saved us, disciplines us – tunes us, composed our life song, plays our life song, and conducts the symphony of the church. He makes beautiful things out of our lives. ...."