"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
so that the surpassing greatness of the power
will be of God and not from ourselves."
2 Corinthians 4:7
God can use broken instruments
to make incomparable music.
- Joni Eareckson Tada
In
A Place of Healing, quadriplegic artist and disability advocate Joni Eareckson Tada tells a story about famed violinist Yitzhak Perlman.
Disabled at a young age by polio, Perlman made a point of coming onstage by himself with the use of crutches and braces.
At a concert in 1995, he made his usual painful entrance onto the stage. During his performance, a string broke on his violin.
An awkward silence fell over the hall. Perlman could not simply walk off the stage for a few moments and replace the string. He stopped, closed his eyes, and thought for a moment. Then he motioned for the conductor to begin again.
The virtuoso played the entire piece minus one string. He masterfully rewrote the score as he went, innovating with the strings to coax new sounds from his disabled violin.
The performance was incredible. When it ended, the awestruck audience erupted into thunderous applause.
Perlman answered their appreciation with these words: "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."
My son Kevin dreamed of being a musician from an early age. At age thirteen, he had his own electric guitar. By nineteen, he played on the church worship team and was saving money to attend a discipleship training school that specialized in music ministry. He was playing guitar for a youth ministry outreach in Canada when he broke his neck.
His fight for life was hard and long. As he recuperated from his injury, we began to realize the depth of the loss he had suffered. Initially paralyzed from the neck down, he eventually regained some feeling and movement in all parts of his body.
But it wasn't enough for a normal life. Today he can do some things for himself but remains mostly disabled. The tracheostomy tube in his throat makes it hard for him to speak loud enough to be heard.
Gone forever is his ability to sing and to play an instrument for God. I grieved especially hard over that loss. Many times I questioned God's decision to let that happen.
I understand better now.
Each day Kevin awakens to serve his God in trust and surrender. He has created a popular website featuring Christian music that probably reaches more people with the gospel than he would have ever reached with his guitar.
It's a new score - a powerful performance. Sweet music, indeed.
Do you ever feel you are broken beyond repair? Has life beaten you up, thrown you down, and threatened to steal the song God put in your heart?
It's no problem for God. He's a creative genius. He knows exactly how to take what's left of our lives and use them to display His incomparable song of grace.
In fact, the greatness of His power is magnified when played out on broken instruments. There's no danger someone will think we made the music ourselves, no doubt the Master is in the hall.
All He asks is that we offer ourselves and prepare to be awestruck. The song of praise we hear will be incomparable.
Master,
I hear the music you play
through our broken lives.
There is no doubt who is in the hall.
The grace, beauty, and power
You display are incomparable.
Once again, I offer my life to you.
Amen.
Excerpted from Out from the Shadows: 31 Devotions for the Weary Caregiver by Pam Thorson.
