“Let all who live in on earth stand in awe of God!" ~ Psalm
33:8
Perhaps the most iconic grand
pianoforte of all time, its Spanish mahogany case was inlaid with marquetry and
ormolu. A gift from Thomas Broadwood,
the most prolific manufacturer of that time, it was selected by five of the
finest pianists in London.
Ludwig van Beethoven received the
six-octave Broadwood in 1818; the instrument upon which he composed most of his
celebrated works. The piano is estimated
to be worth more than $50 million and is understandably roped off and out of
the reach of the thousands of visitors who pass by it each day at Hungary’s
National Museum in Budapest.
Once during a private tour by wealthy patrons, a young woman
couldn’t resist the temptation to ask a museum guard if she could play it for a
moment. The guard, influenced by her generous tip, allowed
her beyond the ropes briefly.
She sat at the famed piano and knocked out several bars of Moonlight Sonata. When she finished, the crowd applauded
politely.
As she stepped back through the ropes, the woman asked the
guard, “Have all the great pianists visiting the museum played the piano?”
“No, miss,” the guard replied. “In fact, just two years ago I was standing
in this very place when a gray-haired gentleman with long, flowing hair visited
the museum. He was accompanied by the Museum
Director and an international press, who had all come in the hope that he,
Ignacy Paderewski, would play the piano.
“When he entered the room he stood over there, where your
friends are standing and gazed at the piano in silent contemplation for nearly
15 minutes. The Director invited him to
play it. But with tears welling in his
eyes Paderewski the great Polish statesman and one of the few men alive worthy enough
to play Beethoven’s piano, declined saying “I’m not even worthy to touch it.”
Paderewski was frozen with awe. The young woman saw the piano and thought it
would be cool to casually play it.
We’re living in a time of ‘awe deprivation.’ Technological advances have made things once thought
impossible - not only real today, but normal, expected, even mundane and
unimpressive.
We FaceTime with people on the other side of the globe
without another thought. Search engines
access millions of pages of data in nanoseconds. We use global positioning satellites to find
the quickest route and avoid traffic.
The speed with which change occurs leaves us struggling to
be impressed with much of anything. The
byproducts of being awe-deprived are increased arrogance, decreased empathy, and
greater challenge to find real meaning.
Awe is the result of being in the presence of, or exposed
to, something worthy of wonder, admiration and respect. Awe results from an openness and willingness
to see greatness and be moved by it. Let’s
put ‘awe’ back in awesome!
“Great Redeemer, Lord and Master, Light of all
eternal days; Let the saints of ev'ry nation Sing Thy just and endless praise!”
Amen ~ B.B. McKinney
