it's here: the piano

About six months ago, I had a conversation with a dear family friend about something that God had put on his heart. Over the phone, he told me that he wanted to find and invest in a baby grand piano with a small price tag. He wanted me to help him look since I could give a good opinion on the sound quality and judge the playability and feel. But that wasn't the only reason he wanted my help. He also didn't want to keep it for himself. He said he wanted ME to keep it.

What?!

He explained further that, being a music lover, he wanted to support the arts, and the best way he could think of was to buy a piano and let me, a pianist without a piano, take care of it. The only catch was that I would have to play for him when he came to visit and to be sure to play it often for others.

Really?!

So, needless to say, I have been looking off and on for the last few months, and came to the conclusion that a quality baby grand in his price range was impossible. I found a few nice upright pianos that were in that range, but the baby grand pianos were always in poor condition, structurally and internally. They just sounded terrible.

So every time I would make my search, I would report back to him my findings, convinced that the quality piano he was looking for would have to be an upright.

But God had something else to say about it. Oh, me of little faith.

***

I have been looking around Craigslist a lot lately for lots of little additions to our new home. This morning I was perusing furniture and household items as usual when I felt the urge to search for "piano". Even after all these months, I don't think I have actually looked on Craigslist for a piano.

One of the ads today caught my eye. There actually was an interesting posting for a Kawaii baby grand. Kawaii pianos are what I almost exclusively played in college, and it had a reasonable asking price, so I passed the info along.

My dear friend told me to go look at it and that "we might be able to make an offer and get it...I like it also". I called and made an appointment to see it. Turns out it was taking up too much space at a mobile home clubhouse, and they wanted it gone.

All of this was going by so fast, I wasn't even realizing what was happening.

Truthfully, I wasn't expecting much when I went to see it--even baby grands listed for many thousands of dollars tended to need a lot of work in order to even be a decent piano. They seemed more like large decorations rather than musical instruments.

I was surprised. It played quite nicely and the tone was beautiful. It had some aesthetic quirks but nothing that would hurt the sound quality or playability. Even Ryan, who claims to "be as musical as a rock" was impressed, noticing an obvious difference between the sound of this piano and others we had looked at in this price range.

I was even more surprised when I measured it. It was almost six feet long.

"Isn't that a little large for a baby grand?" Ryan and I both asked each other in the car.

When we got back home, I surveyed our music room with the tape measure.

"It would work, actually," I said, surprised again.

My buyer told me to go ahead and make a low offer. I could hardly believe all of this was happening so fast. Over the next several minutes, I ended up playing the role of middleman between the buyer and seller. I was nervous, but excitement was steadily growing with each phone call.

Between one of my phone calls, I stopped and looked at Ryan on the couch.

"So, this might be happening," I said, wide-eyed. "My seller just gave me his lowest price--which is the same as my buyer's highest."

I jumped up and down.

So I have a piano. A beautiful black Kawaii six foot grand piano.

"Do you have room for it?" asked my friend and benefactor.

"Well, I guess I'll have a piano room!" I replied.

***

The story didn't end there. After figuring out the logistics of how to get it paid for and getting a deposit ready for the time being, I turned to Ryan.

"How much can we chip in to move it?" I asked.

"All of it, I think?"

"Really?" I said, confused.

"Hold on a second," he answered, then left the room.

When he came back, he handed me a jar.

I took it, almost laughing. "What's in this?" I said, shaking it, expecting to hear the rattle of pennies. It didn't rattle.

"Money," he said simply.

I squinted at the darkened glass, glimpsed a five dollar bill on top, and then all the emotions spilled out.

I can still hardly believe it.

All of this is happening on a very busy weekend, right after some recent financial challenges for us.  It's funny though--we have available the exact amount of money needed to put down a deposit tomorrow and have already figured out how to make the final purchase and reimbursement of money happen.  Also, it wasn't really ideal for the investor to buy the piano now either, but all of us somehow felt this was right for right now.  Which means that it is happening in God's timing.  He just brought it all together (dare I say, orchestrated it?) so beautifully.

All I can say is, God provides.