GOD'S MASTERPIECE

Isaiah 41:17-43:13; Ephesians 2:1-22; Psalm 67:1-7; Proverbs 23:29-35

“Here is my chosen one, with whom I am pleased. I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise his voice…. He will faithfully bring about justice. He will not be discouraged or crushed until he has set up justice on the earth…. This is what the LORD God says: ^‘I, the LORD, have called you to do what is right. I will take hold of your hand. I will protect you. I will appoint you as my promise to the people, as my light to the nations. You will give sight to the blind, bring prisoners out of prisons, and bring those who live in darkness out of dungeons.’”

“Listen, you deaf people. Look, you blind people, so that you can see. Who is blind except my servant or deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one who has my trust or blind like the servant of the LORD? You have seen much, but you do not observe anything. Your ears are open, but you hear nothing.“

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good works that God prepared long ago to be our way of life.”

Back when I was growing up, my Dad and I would play golf with a friend who spent most of his time bemoaning the foibles of our local professional baseball team. He would rant and rave and always conclude with the same line. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m their biggest fan.” Dad or I would routinely reply, “Well, if you’re number one, I’d hate to see number two!” Sometimes, I think God may have the same reaction to our self-evaluations. Commanded to love ourselves, most of us are far more familiar with our faults than our talents and gifts. We are seldom our own biggest fans. Instead, we look in the mirror and cry out, “Oh, Lord, please shuffle and deal again!” The idea that we would be seen as any kind of art by anyone is as foreign to us as quantum physics. We are blinded to our potential. Yet, the One who created us never loses sight of our promise or our capabilities. We are exactly who, and where, He created us to be, fitting perfectly into His grand mosaic of Creation.  We are His masterpiece. It’s time we stop letting the perspective of the world and/or of Satan run us down.

We are God’s masterpiece, regardless of how we feel about it. He did not make a mistake in giving us life, and He loves us exactly the way we are. True, He loves us too much to let us stay as we are, but what parents do not want their children to grow and develop so they can more perfectly experience their full potential? There is a fundamental difference between destruction and purification. We don’t always see it or understand it. Certainly, we don’t always appreciate that God is working in productive ways in our lives. We give up on ourselves, and we assume He shares our views. But in this, too, we are wrong.  The Lord of Creation Himself is our biggest fan. He believes in us even when we do not believe in ourselves.

As God’s children, then, we need to work on seeing ourselves as Christ sees us. Forgiven, we are free to fail. Empowered, we are capable of achieving things for the Kingdom beyond any we could ever dream or imagine. Blessed, we have tools and guidance from the very Author of life that we have yet to even begin to explore or put into practice. It is as if the Lord has set us in front of a Christmas tree surrounded by gifts and said, “My child, open as many as you like.” Like any four year old would, we ought to be tearing into our gifts. Many of us, though, cannot accept that the gifts are really ours. We literally don’t know what to do with them. So, they remain unopened until even the ribbons droop and the wrapping paper fades and they do not even attract us any longer.

This is an absolutely foolish way to live! Jesus wants us to open every gift we can possibly get our hands on, to use it until it is used up, and to fully experience the amazing bounty of His love. We are His masterpiece, but He has an infinite number of accessories for each of us to make us even more capable, more effective, more useful and more beautiful. Now that we are truly His, the Lord wants to fully outfit us for the journey ahead. Let us not close our eyes or our hearts to our potential or our beauty. Instead, let us be bold in claiming the blessings and gifts of the Holy Spirit. They were tailor made just for us, after all, and no one else can use them as effectively. Life, love and blessings are terrible things to waste. We can, and should, be bold when it comes to claiming the gifts of God.