A Prayed-For Piano

Matthieu (Matthew) is 12 years old and lives in the city of Paris, France [locate on map]. He enjoys reading, drawing, and gymnastics. But he especially likes to play the piano. Matthew will tell us how God answered a special prayer for him.

[Let a junior-age boy tell this first-person story.]

Matthew’s Music

I love music, and from the time I was little I wanted to learn to play a musical instrument. My family has a small organ, so when I was eight years old, I started taking group piano lessons. But without a piano on which to practice, it was hard to keep up with the class. I asked my mother if we could get a piano. She told me that pianos are very expensive and that we did not have the money for one. But she did offer to pray for a piano.

The Visit

One day my mom and I went to visit a friend of hers. The woman was nice and offered to let me watch a children’s video while she and Mom talked. It was a video of children singing, and I could hear the piano playing in the background. That’s when it dawned on me that Mom’s friend had a piano. I turned around and looked at it. It was really nice! “Wow! You have a great piano!” I said.

“Yes,” the woman said. “Do you play the piano?”

“Well, I’m taking piano lessons,” I said, “but we don’t have a piano. I wish we did, because now I practice on our little organ, and it’s hard to keep up with the other students in my class.”

Do You Want It?

Mom’s friend turned to my mom and asked, “Do you want this piano? I don’t play it any longer, and it is a shame to let it stand here and gather dust.”

I looked at Mom and her friend, too excited to breathe. This was an answer to our prayers! At last we would have a real piano that I could practice on!

“We’ve been praying for a piano for several weeks,” my mother said, “and it looks as if God is answering that prayer through you.” Mom hugged her friend and whispered “thank you.”

Mother’s friend was glad that her piano was finding a good and welcome home. “You know, a year ago I offered the piano to someone else,” Mom’s friend said. “He agreed to take it, but when he tried to figure out how to get it into his fourth-floor apartment, he realized the piano was too heavy to carry up the stairs. That’s the only reason the piano is still sitting here, waiting for an owner.” She turned and smiled at me, then she said, “Now it has one.”

My mother made arrangements to move the piano to our house. When the piano arrived, I could hardly wait to sit down and begin playing. I started by practicing the songs we had studied in earlier lessons, then I practiced hard on my current lessons. By the end of the school year I had caught up with my classmates who had jumped ahead of me when I didn’t have a piano. By the end of the year my music teacher told me that I have a gift for music.

Opportunity for Ministry

My church asked if I would play the organ to accompany the congregational singing. I’m glad that I can do this for God and my church. I’ve learned that I can play by reading the notes or just by hearing a song and playing by ear.

Recently the young people’s choir of our church asked me to accompany them when they presented a concert. It’s fun to see how I can serve God through something I love to do, such as playing the piano.