Lord Radstock stayed in a hotel in Norway in the mid-nineteenth century. He heard a child playing the piano downstairs in the hallway. The noise was terrible: ‘Plink . . . plonk . . . plink . . . ’ It drove him mad! A man came and sat beside her and began playing alongside her, filling in the gaps. The result was beautiful music. Radstock later discovered that the man playing alongside was the girl’s father, Alexander Borodin, composer of the opera Prince Igor.
God calls us into a relationship that involves cooperation with him. The Christian faith is primarily about what has been done for us by God in Christ. However, we are not mere spectators. We are called to respond. God involves us in his plans. God comes and sits alongside us and ‘in all things . . . works for the good’ (Romans 8:28). He takes our ‘plink . . . plonk . . . plink . . .’ and makes something beautiful out of our lives.