Before the conductor comes to the podium and a symphony orchestra begins to play a musical piece, the first player in the violin section, who is known as the concertmaster, will stand up. The concertmaster will ask the principal oboe player to play a “tuning A.” The rest of the orchestra will then tune their instruments so that they are playing the exact same note as the oboe player. Once the orchestra is in tune the conductor steps up to the podium and begins to lead the orchestra in the piece that they have prepared to play. Being in tune is important to the orchestra. If the violins are playing a note that is not in tune with the woodwinds, the sound that is produced will not be pleasing. But when the orchestra is in tune, they will play in perfect harmony, and the sound will be quite pleasing.
Marriage is much like a symphony orchestra. In order for a marriage to work well, the husband and the wife need to be “in tune” with each other. In an orchestra, there are different types of instruments with very different qualities and very different sounds. But when tuned together to the same note, they produce a concordant sound that is both beautiful and inspiring to those who hear it. In marriage, a man and a woman come together to begin a life together. Like the instruments in the orchestra, they are very different, coming together with different personalities, different character makeup, and maybe even different interests and values. Scripture tells us that, in marriage, a man and woman become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). In order for these two very different people to produce a relationship of perfect harmony, to become “one flesh,” they must be “in tune” with each other. So, how does that happen?
In the orchestra, the concertmaster leads the instruments in tuning up so that they produce the desired sound. In a Christian marriage, it is Jesus who leads a man and a woman to live “in tune” with each other. Without Jesus at the center of the marriage, husband and wife can be out of tune with each other, and the result will be a relationship that is not pleasing to either of them, let alone pleasing to God. In the orchestra, the concertmaster uses the principal oboist to provide the note to which the other instruments can tune. As the “concertmaster” of a marriage, the Word of God, the Bible, is much like the oboist. It provides us with what all of us need to live lives that are pleasing to God. When both a husband and a wife “tune” their lives to the Word of God, they will be “in tune” not just with God, but ultimately with each other. And then, God, just like the conductor of a symphony, will lead them to produce a marriage that is like a well-played symphony, both beautiful and inspiring to those around them.
A Worshiper's Journal 