In a museum in Florence, Italy, you can look upon and marvel at Michelangelo’s David, one of the great sculptures in the world. You can walk all around the statue and inspect it from every angle. But a different view, a fuller view, emerges from the entry hall.
The passage to The David is filled with unfinished statues by Michelangelo. Half-formed people emerge from gigantic blocks of marble, unable to fully escape their captivity. Michelangelo carved images from the front backwards, freeing the creatures he pictured in his mind from the blocks of stone. As you walk slowly toward the David, you get the sense of living beings emerging all around you.
Which brings to mind the Lord’s work in our lives. We are not yet finished, like The David, but we exist similar to those statues enduring in a roughhewn state. Thankfully, the Lord does not leave us incomplete, but continues to chip away at those areas in our lives we no longer need. The Master works steadily, creating the final masterpiece he envisions you and me to be.
As you feel the hammer and the chisel at work in your life, always in uncomfortable ways, remember this: He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).
love it!