The Piano Tuner

When I booked the appointment he asked me if my piano was very out of tune or not too bad. I said it was definitely out of tune but I wasn't sure how much.

It turns out that it was a half tone off. That's pretty significant. It certainly changes the sound of a piece.

I was intrigued to see the process. First, all the surface clutter was removed. Then he removed panels and pieces I didn't even know you could remove.

There stood my piano bare and open with all the inner workings exposed.

It was dusty in there.

I felt embarrassed.

The piano tuner took the vacuum and cleaned in all the nooks and crannies; places I didn't know existed and places I didn't know how to reach.

And when the dust was gone and the broken part repaired, then he worked at bringing it back in tune.

He sat hunched over my piano. He patiently pressed each key again and again, listening, adjusting and listening some more.

I wanted a picture of this piano tuner working on my piano, but I was too embarrassed to snap a picture of this stranger. How could I explain that I wanted a reminder of this day and how his work at the piano was a wonderful object lesson for me, turning my thoughts to my Saviour?

It was long, patient work, but he liked it, I could tell. I could hear him humming to himself between notes. Then, when he was set up on the next string, I could hear him pressing the key again and again and I could hear the sound change as he made the adjustments.

35 years this man has cleaned dust from pianos and sat and listened to each note, string by string, adjusting and changing the pitch to bring the instrument back in tune.

He quietly suggested to me that I shouldn't wait so long to have it tuned the next time because when it has been so off it tends to become out of tune quicker.

Is this not an object lesson?

Are we not just like my piano?

Not looking too bad. Not sounding too bad. Maybe a little off, but not too serious, until we are held to the standard. Then it becomes painfully, discordantly, apparent that our words, our thoughts, and our actions are a 'half tone' out of sync.

God's Word reveals that we are 'out of tune'.

But the Master Tuner willingly and patiently goes to work. He clears away the grime and then He patiently takes every aspect of our being and He listens intently and He makes adjustments. He knows that we slide out of tune easily and quickly so He invites us to submit to Him constantly for tuning.

"Don't wait so long next time."

Can't you hear Him?

The man who tuned my piano seemed shy and gentle and unassuming. I don't know him, but as he worked at the piano I imagined that My Saviour works in much the same way.

Humbly, gently, calmly, adjusting bit by bit and humming as He goes about His work. Not angry about the dust or the faulty pedal or the half tone out of tune, just ready to go to work, ready to make me sing with Him in perfect pitch.

Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord Your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.