Even people who don’t know a lot about music can tell when a piano is badly out of tune. The sound the instrument emits is so strongly divergent from the sound that it should be making that the difference is instantly recognizable. Of course, the more that you know about music, the more likely you are to be able to tell when even small disparities exist. The more you are aware of what should be, the more you can recognize incongruities.
However, it’s not just with musical instruments that we are striving for harmony. God makes clear throughout Scripture that He wants His children to be united in working together for His Kingdom’s purposes (See I Corinthians 12:12-26 for instance). He wants us all to be singing from the same songbook; each contributing their part to the melody He is writing.
We can all admit, though, that this is a difficult task. Yet A.W. Tozer shares with us why, even though it is difficult, it’s possible. He writes:
Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. (The Pursuit of God, 1982, p. 90).
People from different backgrounds, different generations, speaking different languages, and using different methods, can all be united together, if their common note is Christ. If He is the standard that we are all striving towards, and He is the reason we do what we do, than the song we sing will be a beautiful one. The song will be His.
And much like even an untrained ear can tell when a piano is out of tune, so the watching world knows when His children are, which is all the more reason that we shouldn’t be.
