| A Message "How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119:103 -105 |
A Work of Art Last week, I pulled out an old dusty VHS, I admit, I still own a few, and watched it. I was overcome by a terrible flu and all I wanted to do was lay glazed-eyed on the bed, half watching, half dozing. It's a favorite movie of mine, Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison. You youngsters out there probably don't have a clue who I'm talking about but they were actors back before Brad and Keanu. The Agony and the Ecstasy, a story chronicalling the commissioning and painting of the Sistine Chapel and the struggles that insued. That's right, struggles. There is always a struggle, or it really doesn't make it worth it. If it comes easy, it is easily discarded and somehow less valueable. It's the same with lifting and even fitness itself for that matter. It's the struggle to get there that makes it worth it. Saturday mornings around the Barker household bring a few friends, first to work out and then lunch and discussion. Sometimes it's about the Word, other times it's about our struggles and then prayer, but it's always good. On one of these Saturdays, Bobby was helping Rev. Calvin through a set of bicep curls and he was trying to explain to him how to feel it. Take it slow, feel your muscles moving your arm and moving the weight. Concentrate on the area you are working, enjoy it. "Isn't it miraculous how we are made?" he says to Calvin, "How God made the muscle attached to the bone and the fine veins running in the midst." It made me think. God was an artist, shaping, forming, detailing beyond belief or comprehension. Lovingly crafting each work of art, each different, unique and each one loved and poured over. I have worked on a piece myself, for hours, working on something to get it right and being ever so careful not to ruin it, not to allow it to be ruined. Imperfections are ok, that's what gives it character. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female, he created them. Genesis 1:27 He made them. It was so important to say it that it was said three times in the same breathe. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 He, the maker of all things, the one God, got down in the dirt and made a sculpture, a man. He worked, forming and shaping, making each feature just as He envisions it. He loved it and blessed and said it was VERY good. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. Gen 1:31 That's right, very good. Not OK, not just good, not stupid, not worthless, not an accident or mistake or whatever nonsense you might have been told. God, your creator, sees you and says, "You are VERY good, My perfect work of art." There isn't anything He doesn't know about you. He knew you when you were being formed in your mother belly. You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:13 My frame was not hidden from You; When I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. Psalm 139:15,16 He thinks of you like a Father does his child, you cross His mind and a smile appears on His face. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. Psalm 139:17,18 That really doesn't sound like someone who doesn't care. He does, very much. Don't think that He doesn't love you because of who you are or what you do. He knows and he cares. He knows all your inner works. O Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thoughts from afar . You comprehend my path and my lying down. And you are acquainted with all my ways. There is not a word on my tongue, but behold, you know it all together. Psalm 139:1-4 Here's where the story takes a twist. The artist left his collection in the gallery and in spite of the security systems and protective devices that had been placed, a robber broke in. He came in and stole everything. The Artist, longing to have his pieces back, seeks them out, each one. They had been sold to new owners and they wanted to be compensated. They have it and there is a price to be paid. What would the Artist do? Allow someone else to keep His creation? They didn't form it, sculpt it and they couldn't possible love it as much as He does. He would pay anything to have them back, safe in His possession again. And He did. Each one of us, in our own way, are sought by our Creator. He bought us back. You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. 1 Cor 6:20 If you have not received salvation, honor Him, i.e. acknowledge him as your creator, your redeemer and return to the gallery where you belong. Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it,“He did not make me”? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,“ He has no understanding”? Isaiah 29:16 If you do, I know what you might be thinking. If He loves me so much, why do I have so many problems? Let me explain, I call it the "Kiln Effect." Pottery is just clay until it is fired. Anyone who has done any sculpting or pottery work knows that greenware is very fragile, it chips and breaks ever so easily. It's powdery and weak. After it is fired, it is is far more sturdy and the ugly wash that was applied to the greenware has become a shiny glaze, exentuating every curve and crevice and detail. Yet you Oh Lord, you are our Father. We are clay, you are the potter; we are all works of your hand. Isaiah 64:8 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob And He who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. Isaiah 43:1,2 <Ring Ring> It's the Creater, He wants to talk to you. |