Bill was a piano technician, a trade he had learned from his father. As I was praying about the message I would deliver at his memorial service, I got to thinking about how pianos are tuned. Bill had been to our home several times to tune our piano. Tuning takes time and the right equipment. Bill made minute adjustments to the tension of the strings to properly align the intervals between their tones.

I learned about A-440, which is the pitch standard for the note A above middle C. On a piano, that string should vibrate at exactly 440 vibrations per second (or 440 Hz). Anything higher would be sharp; anything lower would be flat. Once that “A” had been tuned to the pitch standard, the other notes would be tuned to that.

You can certainly tune a piano to itself at a different frequency, but for two instruments to be in harmony with each other, they need a pitch standard, a standard outside of itself.

A person may think they are in tune – their life is going well until they meet someone like Bill who seems to be tuned to a different pitch. They see peace in his life, strength that isn’t seen every day. What’s the difference? Bill’s life has been tuned to the one and only pitch standard – Jesus Christ. Bill has repented of his sins and received Jesus into his life; he has put his faith in him.

And when we are individually tuned to Jesus, we can be in harmony with each other. It doesn’t mean we play the same instruments or the same notes – the Lord has brought wonderful variety to the Body of Christ, hasn’t he? As long as we are all in tune with Jesus, we can be in harmony with each other!

We’re like an orchestra, each playing the instrument God put in our hands, playing in the same key, following the same sheet music, making beautiful music together, music that is pleasing to our Conductor and to those who listen.