This is the shortest post I’ve written on my blog, but it may well be one of the most powerful. When I was a teenager I came across a poem by Myra Brooks Welch. I shared it with my youth group at church and it has continued to have a profound effect on my life over the years. I want to share that poem with you.
“Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it hardly worth his while to waste his time on the old violin, but he held it up 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. From the room far back a gray bearded man came forward and picked up the bow. Then wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening up the strings, he played a melody, pure and sweet, as sweet as the angel sings. The music ceased and the auctioneer with a voice that was quiet and low said, ‘What now am I bid for this old violin?’ as he held it aloft with its bow. ‘One thousand, one thousand, do I hear two? Two thousand, who makes it three? Three thousand once, three thousand twice, going and gone’ said he. The audience cheered, but some of them cried, ‘We just don’t understand. What changed its worth?’ Swift came the reply, ‘The Touch of the Master’s Hand’. And many a man with life out of tune all battered and bruised with sin is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd much like the old violin. A mess of pottage, a glass of wine, a game and he travels on. He is going once, he is going twice, he is going and almost gone. But the Master comes and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that is wrought by the Touch of the Master’s Hand.”
It is so sad to think that there are Stradivarius violins silently on display in museums. It is even sadder to realize that there are people on display in the pews of churches on Sunday who are silent the rest of the week, when they could demonstrate their true worth to the thoughtless crowd around them every single day with just a Touch of the Master’s Hand.