A New Life

About a year ago, I had the opportunity to buy an old church piano that had sat inside a church for years. I love thinking about the history this piano has been a part of. Its keys have been played by the hands of young and old and all ages in between, from the skilled pianist to the beginner. It has provided musical backdrops for weddings, funerals, childrens' programs and church specials. For several months, this piano sat silent as the doors to the church were closed and everything in it put up for sale. 

For a sentimental girl like me, the opportunity to purchase this treasure was one I couldn't let pass me by. If it could talk, this piano would tell stories of laughter, tears, repentance, forgiveness, grief, joy, redemption and salvation. 

Now this piano sits in the room next to me. It has begun a new life, but it still holds the memories of its former one, the one that has shaped it and molded it to be the beauty that it is today. 

Much like us, this piano wouldn't have the same charm and mystique without its history. God uses our past, including our mistakes, our failures and our sorrows, to shape us for each new step in our journey. We often don't understand something while we're going through it yet many times, we can look back weeks, months, years later and see the amazing work God has done in us.

Sometimes, we wish we could go back and change things, right our wrongs and make wiser decisions. Yet God takes that past, even the parts that we don't like so much, and uses them to mold us into who He wants us to become ... if only we let Him.