“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” -Job1:7

Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644, and established his shop in Cremona, Italy, where he remained active until his death in 1737. Stradivari made harps, guitars, violas, and cellos–more than 1,100 instruments in all, by current estimate. About 650 of these instruments survive today.

No modern violinmaker has been able to replicate Stradivari’s work. The violins of Stradivari’s time were treated with a varnish made from the resinous material of any of a number of possible plants. We don’t know what method Stradivari used to cook the resin (or for how long he cooked it), but its translucent sheen lent to the violins a robust whiskey color and may have also enhanced the wood’s ability to echo sound so clearly.

We can measure the instruments’ varying lengths (a little more than 14 inches), depths (about 11/4 inch), and width. Even a marginally talented copyist can make a violin with the specs of a Stradivarius. Yet no one has been able to make an instrument that yields the extraordinary tonal quality of a Strad.

Stephanie Chase is a world renown violinist who has said: “Because the perfection of a Stradivarius has never been matched by another maker past or present, it makes you think we must be missing something… “I’ve begun to believe there must be a higher concept, some overriding principle that he abided by that we just have not been able to understand.”

If we cannot understand how to replicate a violin, how can we possibly understand the mysteries of God? Today in prayer, thank the Lord for those things He has revealed to us.

“God cannot be grasped by the mind. If he could be grasped, he would not be God.” – Evagrius of Pontus

God’s Word: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” – Deuteronomy 29:29

Copyright 2005, Devotional E-Mail Devotions in Job pkennedy6@yahoo.com