What a difference a tuning makes....

Yesterday we had our piano tuned.  YAY!  It had gotten to the point where I didn't want to sit down and play anything because it had gotten so out of tune.  One key in particular, the F just below middle C, sounded flatter than a board-book, and in the lower register there was a whole octave that wasn't playing right--all the keys were moving downward when you pressed just one.  But when the piano tuner was done yesterday, it sounded like a wholly different instrument, and playing was once again pleasurable.  Now, it took about two hours of painstaking work for the tuner to bring the piano back into tune.  It isn't an easy thing to do.  I watched and listened as he carefully tested each note, comparing it to the electronic tuner he had, twisting the pin to tighten the string or loosen it until the key played the note perfectly.  If even one note is off, an entire song can be ruined.  So he tested them, tuned them, and played them individually and then together to make sure the sound was right.  He fixed the F that was out of tune.  He found a pencil that had rolled into the piano in the bass section and, voila, those keys began playing correctly again.

So....this morning I'm ruminating on the piano tuning, and thinking that God does a lot of similar things in our lives as Christians.  He sometimes twists and turns us, tightening things in our lives to bring us in tune with Him.  He shows us "pencils in the works," things that have rolled into our lives (or we've invited in) that are keeping us from functioning correctly.  He removes those things from our lives when we ask Him to, and carefully aligns us with Him.  What a loving and gracious God!