Watching my sister-in-love at work, setting up a table or props for a special event, is a welcome sight for sore eyes. She has this amazing ability to create rather fancy settings using the most nondescript items and transform them into a thing of beauty.
With her penchant for detail, she can spot a treasure even while rummaging through ordinary, everyday items. She has this sparkle in her eye as she envisions what this commonplace item could turn into once she starts work on it.
It is no easy task cleaning up layers of dirt or, scraping away labels, or chipping away the rough edges. But with a little elbow grease and a lot of patience and dedication, what would have been thrown away gets transformed into a beautiful showpiece.
An ordinary plate is turned into a classic cake stand. A drab, plain fabric is given new life with a ribbon that she knots up into dainty rosette bows. The long-forgotten teapot now has a place of pride at the table as a planter. A newly painted milk can brighten a corner as a flower vase, rivaling its designer doppelganger.
She sees beauty in the ordinary and envisions excellence from the mundane.
But isn't that how it is with the Lord our God? How He transforms us... ordinary lumps of clay into His sparkling masterpieces. The blemishes, the scars, the hollowness, the dents, the cracks, He knows and sees, but He is able to see what He can transform us into. He is not fazed by the stubborn stains or the careless labels that have been slapped on.
He washes us anew and gives us a new identity: being a child of God. As we surrender our lives to Him in submission, He takes away our filthy rags and clothes us in His righteousness.
The Bible reminds us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that,
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new [a]creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Oh yes, the faults will show through at times, the past will jostle for space with the present, the cracks may remain deep within. But we need to remind ourselves that we who were forgotten and could have been passed by were handpicked by Him to fulfil His purposes in and through us.
We need to focus our eyes on the One who called us, the One who picked us out, the One who washed us anew and gave us a place at the table and a new identity in Him.
The Master sees value in our imperfect pieces, and what He can do with that is beyond human comprehension. Philippians 1:6 encourages us to be "confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus."
We are a masterpiece, the Master’s piece of art!
Photo by Anna Kolosyuk on Unsplash
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