The Art of Me

(I wrote this in 2006, and except for a few minor edits, it remains unchanged.)  

We are each uniquely made by God.  I’m sure you’ve heard that before, but have you actually accepted what that means?  Imagine a painter who is creating the largest work of mosaic art in the world.  This masterpiece is a combination of billions of smaller pictures, that together, form a beautiful and perfect image.  He spends hours meticulously creating each piece just the way he wants it.  In real life, the painter’s life would end long before the piece could be completed.
 
However, this is what God did with us.  The Bible says that God is the beginning and the end.  Having been around for an eternity into the past, He had more than enough time to personally create each person.  The universe is one large mosaic; each person and thing is created as one piece of a massively large puzzle, but each piece has its perfect place.  He created us just the way He wanted.  Our personalities, our bodies, where and to whom we would be born, who we would know, our strengths, our weaknesses, everything about us.  For God is greater than all the imaginations of all the peoples of this Earth, yet He still uses us for his infinite purposes.  Even me, even you.  God knew my purpose before I was even born.  He knew my purpose before He created this Earth. 
 
As I look out at the world, there are many things to see.  Beautiful architecture, great works of art, brilliant colors, great diversity.  But all of the beauty in the world cannot change one of the absolute truths that affect each and every person of every race: we all need Jesus.  This is what I see when I look out at the world: millions of people who are living it up, going about their daily lives unaware that they are lacking the single most important thing that they could ever need.  They are lost in this world of sin, and they need forgiveness.  Without the mercy and love of God, this world means nothing. 
 
We are each works of art; each unique, each beautiful, each loved by our almighty creator.  The art of me is different than the art of you, and the art of you is different from the art of your friends and relatives.  We were each hand crafted by our Lord, divinely shaped for our own distinct purpose.  God sees the completed picture of me, but I only see fragments.  Things look fuzzy or incomplete.  This is because we are not made to fully understand everything God is doing through us.  We are made to live through faith, and always follow Him despite our lack of knowledge concerning our purpose.  God knows, and at the end, when we are with Him in Heaven, we will be able to see that completed work of art, and fully understand everything God did through us.

Each of us is a masterfully made work of art.  Even though there are billions of us, each one of us is masterfully different and brilliantly complicated.  There is nothing else in this Earth than can contend with the levels of detail that God has put into us.  We are constructed and designed with beauty and with purpose.  God is the almighty artist, flawlessly maneuvering his brush or chisel and never making a mistake.
 
Sometimes, however, we do something to chip the paint or crack the marble.  We all make mistakes.  God is the great artist, we are the clumsy people he has entrusted his great works of art to.  One of the many (or better said, one of the infinite number of) great things about God is that He is also the great repairman.  No chip or crack is too great for Him; He is always there to welcome us back.  Our entire lives seem to be like this.  We make mistakes, and go in for repairs, only to make another mistake.  This is the way of things.  A problem arises, however, when we decide that we do not need God’s repairs.  The cracks can become large, and we can crumble.  Only a life lived with God’s hand is a fulfilling one.  All others will crumble and be blown away by the wind.

In job interviews, and life in general, it always seems that two of the hardest things to come up with are your strengths and weaknesses.  Inevitably, listing your strengths is always easier.  For instance, I am honest, loyal, and friendly.  I am slow to become angry or irritated.  I have fairly good written communication skills.  By society’s standards I am a very moral person.  I have never smoked a cigarette or a cigar or had any drink of alcohol.  I have let slip a total of three vulgar words in my life, and I didn’t even know one of them was considered profane when I said it.  I did not engage in any sort of sexual relations until my wedding night, six days after my twenty-fourth birthday.  I was raised in a strong Christian home, the son of a pastor.  The Bible’s teachings were instrumental in the way my parents raised me.  I am infinitely thankful for my foundation in Christ.
 
Well now, that wasn’t so hard.  Look at me; I’m such a good person.  Or not.  Fortunately, while God has equipped us with strengths, he has not spared us from weaknesses.  Through our weaknesses, He can show us how much we truly need Him.  It keeps us from letting our ego swell too much; it keeps us humble.
 
My weaknesses are plenty; I, like everyone else, am swamped by imperfections.  I am over-sarcastic.  I can sometimes be judgmental.  I have relatively poor verbal communication skills.  I am not very good at expressing my emotions.  My mind loses functionality when presented with a confrontational or tense circumstance.  I can be socially awkward.  I can be one heck of a procrastinator.  I’ve had struggles with lust in the past.
 
What a mess, huh?  But will that stop God from using me?

The Bible says, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” (Psalm 139:13–16, NLT).

God knew what He was doing when He made me.  My personality traits are designed to go perfectly with my experiences, so that I may be able to fulfill my purpose.  I believe whole-heartedly that God is able to use my negative experiences and flaws, in conjuncture with the personality he developed just for me, to make into the person He wants me to be.  Through God, I can do His will.  And so can you.