Photo by Flickr user Epic Fireworks licensed under Creative Commons
By Dr. Harold A. Sala
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Psalm 42:5, KJV
For many years the famed Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra were featured in weekly concerts over radio. Millions of people turned their radio dials to hear Toscanini. Here was a master musician who knew how to draw out of his orchestra some of the greatest music this side of heaven.
One day, Toscanini was reading his fan mail. He smiled as he read this brief note postmarked in a very small town in Wyoming: “Dear Sir: I’m a lonely sheep herder and the only company I have is my violin and a small battery radio. I’m afraid that soon my batteries will be dead and I won’t be able to hear you any more. Then all I’ll have for company is my old fiddle. It is so badly out of tune that I cannot play it enjoyably until I get it back in pitch. Would you, Mr. Toscanini, be so kind as to sound the note of ‘A’ this Sunday night on your broadcast? Sincerely…” and he signed his name.
His unique appeal touched a responsive chord in the old maestro’s heart. And that Sunday night, the announcer on Toscanini’s program read the letter from Wyoming and then said, “Now, for our friend with the outoftune violin, here’s the note of ‘A’.” At that moment, the note of “A” was sounded in New York City, and some 2,000 miles away, the lonely sheepherder put the violin to his ear, plucked at a string, tuned it up to pitch, and played happily ever after!
Do you see in this true story an amazing parallel to what happened nearly 2,000 years ago when Christ left the ivory palaces of heaven to come to the broken world in which we live today? Like the old sheepherder’s violin, the world was out of tune morally, politically, religiously. And to make matters worse, there was no one around to sound the divine “A”. For 400 years there had been no prophet in Israel, no one to sound heaven’s harmony, no one to change life’s bitter melody into something meaningful. Then Jesus came! He changed everything!
For nearly 2,000 years, people worldwide, in all walks of life, have turned their ear heavenward, and they have never been the same again! Their lives, so out of tune, so full of discord, have found that through Christ they can have the harmony of heaven in their lives.
One such person is Nicky Cruz, the young man who was made famous in the pages of Dave Wilkerson’s book, The Cross and the Switchblade. To say that Nicky’s life was out of tune is to put it mildly. “I hate you!” he shouted at his own mother, a woman who denied her son the affection he craved. Coming to New York City, he lived by the law of the jungleeating in restaurants and slipping out without paying, becoming the leader of a tough street gang, perplexing the stateappointed psychiatrist assigned to him, spitting on the one man truly concerned about him, Dave Wilkerson.
Dave’s statement, “God loves you, Nicky,” sounded the note of hope in Nicky’s life, and today he is a man in tune with society and with God! How is it with your life? Is inner harmony an impossible dream to you? Do you know what it is to sleep peacefully, without the aid of medication? If the story of the old sheep herder’s out-of-tune violin reminds you of your life, why not let God bring you back into pitch with life?
Jesus said, “My peace I give unto you…” What better time than now is there for you to get in tune with heaven? Right now, while this truth is fresh in your heart, ask God to speak peace to your heart and help you get your life together again. Yes, why not?
Resource reading: Psalm 42.
