A visitor to an old town once saw some boys playing in the street, as boys will. One of them was pushing along in front of him what looked like a queer kind of wheel barrow with no wheels, and only one handle. It had a kind of lid with two peculiar S-shaped slots in it, and the boy was pouring dust in through the slots; then trundling it along, he emptied the dust into a pile.
Can you guess what it was?... Yes, a violin; a violin without strings-battered, dusty and hardly recognizable, but still a violin.
The visitor asked the boy to let him see it, and he looked it over carefully. Then he offered the boy a sum equal to about a dollar and took the violin away. He cleaned it with loving care, made it a violin again—and sold it for several thousand dollars, for it was a “Strad” violin, made by the famous maker, Stradivarius.
Dear boys and girls, do not waste away your possibilities and all that God has given you like the little boy was doing with the old violin. The Lord Jesus, the blessed Master and Son of God, in a most wonderful way can lift people out of the dust and restore them to usefulness, those who have been wasting themselves like that. But He longs to save boys and girls who have their life before them, to redeem them, and to make them useful in His service, before their minds and bodies have been withered and abused by sin and the world.
But there is still another kind of waste which is just as bad. In the museum at Genoa there used to be, before World War II, a famous exhibit. In a great glass case, in a beautiful nest of dark velvet, lay a lovely violin. It had belonged to the world-famous violinist, Paganini, and it was left to the museum on condition that it was never played again.
So there it lay, the wonderful instrument which had brought matchless music to millions of people. It was perfectly safe in this glass case, free from all harm and abuse, but it was slowly deteriorating for want of being used. That is just as bad as turning a violin into a child’s wheelbarrow.
The talents and wonderful possibilities with which God has filled your life, if not used, will begin to waste away until perhaps one day you cannot use them.
The Lord Jesus can use you and your talents, but you must be saved first. Until you are saved, He cannot use you. Until you are redeemed by His precious blood, nothing that you might seek to do for Him will have any value in His sight. May we all learn the lesson of Romans 7:1818For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. (Romans 7:18): “For I know that in me... dwelleth no good thing.”
Turn to the Lord Jesus now, put your life into His hands, ask Him to tune you to His purpose and use you in His service. He wants you, and you need Him.
Just as I am, young, strong and free, To be the best that I can be For truth and righteousness and Thee, Lord of my life, I come.
ML-07/03/1977