My husband bought me a piano.
Now, before you imagine some elegant moment of music and romance—think less Hallmark movie and more “What on earth are we doing?” Because this thing was an auction find. A $25 vintage Baldwin that had seen better decades.
Why did he buy it? Because I said I wanted one. (Yes, I’m that spoiled princess who sometimes gets what she wants.) And to be fair, it was a steal. But getting it home turned into a full-blown marital obstacle course.
We flipped it end over end through the doorway, scraped up the floor, and pulled probably every muscle we owned. By the time it landed in the living room, I was pretty sure both the piano and our backs were permanently out of tune.
It’s scratched, missing a few notes, and doesn’t even have a bench. Some keys stick, some sound like they’re protesting, and others have just… quit. And me? I can’t play a lick. My proudest accomplishment so far is a very questionable version of Itsy Bitsy Spider.
But here’s the thing: I love it. I love it because it’s mine—bought for me in love.
And that’s when it hit me: this is exactly how God sees us.
We show up just like that piano—banged up, chipped, out of tune, and half-working. And Jesus looks at us and says, Mine. Bought with love.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”
It doesn’t say, “If anyone gets their act together first.” It just says anyone.
But somewhere along the way, we forget that. We start expecting people to walk into church already polished up and ready to perform. We hand out rules instead of grace. And when they don’t fit neatly into our expectations, we judge them right back out the door.
But that’s not our job.
Jesus said in John 6:44,
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.”
It’s not up to us to clean people up before they meet Him—it’s up to Him to draw them close and do the heart work.
Our job is to open the door, make room on the bench (even if it’s missing), and let His love do the tuning.
Because if we’re honest, we’re all still a little out of tune ourselves. We all have notes that don’t sound quite right, keys that stick, and rhythms that falter. But God doesn’t give up on us. He patiently works on the song inside each of us.
When the Pharisees grumbled about who Jesus spent time with, He said,
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Luke 5:31).
Translation: He came for the broken, not the flawless.
So when someone new walks into your church looking a little dented and dusty—remember the $25 piano. It might not sound great yet, but in the hands of the right Player, it’s capable of something beautiful.
And that’s us, friends. Loved, redeemed, being made new—one note at a time.
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