A while back, I read a poem by Myra Brooks Welch titled: “An old violin—the touch of a master”. This poem is based on an old, battered and scarred violin, which was put up for auction. Even the auctioneer thought it was hardly worth his while. He however still held up the old violin with a smile. “What am I bid, good people,” he cried. “Who starts the bidding for me? One dollar, one dollar! Do I hear two? Two dollars! Who makes it three? Three dollars once, three dollars twice, going for three….”
But no! A gray-haired man from the back of the room stepped forward and picked up the bow. He wiped the dust from the old violin, tightened the loose strings and played a sweet and pure melody. When he stopped playing, the auctioneer with a low and quiet voice said, “What now am I bid for this old violin? One thousand, one thousand! Do I hear two? Two thousand! Who makes it three?”
From being priced from a dollar to three thousand dollars, same musical instrument! What warranted the change in value from the auctioneer and bidders? The touch of the master! Put differently, the master’s intervention, coupled with his restorative ability. But for the master’s intervention, the violin would have remained a worthless object. Prior to the master’s touch, it was unable to do what it was created for. Everyone had written it off but the master knew just what to do in order to make the violin produce a pure and sweet melody, just as it was originally crafted for, even in spite of the wear and tear it had suffered over time.
Just like that old violin, we all in one area or the other are in need of the Master’s touch. He created us and He knows just what to do in order to fix every form of brokenness we may be experiencing.
The struggles entailed in day-to-day living, the process of self-discovery and diverse life challenges can sometimes leave us scarred and battered, and we end up losing our sense of self-worth: A child whose parents died when he or she was only a baby and had been tossed from one relative to the other and treated all his or her life like a slave. A woman or man whose spouse walked out on them without a reasonable explanation after they had given their all to that relationship. A sexual assault victim grappling with the trauma and guilt of being defiled. An unemployed graduate who had done all that was in his or her power to secure a job. An old spinster or bachelor who seemed to be left on the shelf with time and age not being on their side. The list is endless.
Do you feel like that old run-down violin without any inherent value, priced ridiculously by men? Always bear in mind, irrespective of your physical circumstances, that you are valuable in God’s eyes. And because you are valuable and are His beloved, God is saying to you today, “I will restore to you all that you have lost…you will end up praising the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you and you will not be ashamed.”