Perfection

My family grew up singing hymns.  We sang them in church, at the piano at our house, friends' homes, my grandparents' house...lots of places.  They were sung with gusto and much inflection on the music.  The little variations on the part of the piano players added to the overall quality of the music produced.
Several times in the last few years I've had the occasion (where a piano player was lacking) to sing hymns played by what a friend calls the "piano player in a box."  It's a CD with the hymns produced digitally.  They are played in perfect time with zero inflection.  I had survived singing as a participant, but a few times recently I've had to lead the singing to this digitally produced stuff.  I messed it up pretty badly in a couple places--OK, a lot of places.
There are a couple lessons here.  The first, and most important is our proximity to perfection.  We aren't even close.  The best singers, those with impeccable skills, will not keep to the exacting time of a computer--the perfect time.  It makes me think of Romans 3:23: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  The best of us just won't be perfect.  No matter how hard we try we will not achieve the perfection that is required.  That's why Christ had to die, so that God could look on as though we were perfect, even though we are not, and never will be.
The other lesson is a bit convoluted, but is an interesting thought.  As each musician has his own interpretation on the music, each Christian (and here I'm talking those who have accepted Christ and are attempting to live up to his standard, not nominal Christians) will have minor variations in his attempts at getting it perfect.  Some musicians might hold a note, fiddle with the timing here and there, maybe even change a note once in a while, whatever works for their style.  This is their work to make a pleasant piece of music.  Each Christian in our attempt to get it right will have a few of those "imperfections" in our lives also.  They're part of us; but hopefully we're trying to get our lives the way Christ would have us live them.
My music will never be perfectly timed, and my life will never be that of a perfect Christian; but I strive to make good music, and I strive to make my life pleasant and pleasing to my God.