davidbowerkingwood

OUCH, THAT HURTS!

A favorite anecdote about the great artist, Michelangelo, has been circulating for many years. According to the story he was asked about the difficulties that he must have faced in sculpting his masterpiece David. But, according to the story, he replied with a casual description of his creative process:

It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David.

Detail of Michelangelo’s David

We are told that we, as Christians, are experiencing a time where we too are being sculpted by the hand of God into the image of his Son, Jesus Christ; yes, we are a work in progress!

I think we can all agree that the chisel can sometimes cut into sensitive areas of our lives and cause a sharp pain! Even those painful episodes are intended to chip away those parts that fall short of the image of Jesus; we come with a lot of Adamic baggage attached!

In Romans 8:28-30 it is written:

“²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰ Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

God’s plan for your life was completed before you were even born; in Psalms 139:16 it is written:

“¹⁶ 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.”

God’s Book

One of the many joys of walking by faith and not by sight, is the joy of not trying to understand why things happen the way they do. Life, from our perspective, is filled with the unexpected; I observed many years ago the most impactful events in the life of our family had been those events which were unplanned and unexpected.

These events were suddenly thrust upon us and we had to respond as best we could and trust in the Lord to carry us through the results of those events. One of those events was the death of our older son, at 28 years, due to inoperable brain cancer; another was the death of our grandson, at 10 months, due to an inoperable circulatory defect.

These are life-changing events for the family, one is never again the same after experiencing such an event. While it is possible to rest in the Lord after something like that happens, one’s perspective on life is forever altered.

Our Christian faith provides us the reassurance that those loved ones are not gone, they have just moved on ahead of us and at our appointed time, we will rejoin them. It is a game-changer when one clearly realizes and accepts that each of us are eternal, having been created in the image of God.

Both our son and grandson lived every day that had been fashioned for them, they went home to their Lord at the time written in God’s book! It is a source of great comfort to know that God’s will for their precious lives was not thwarted by circumstances!

The Walk of Faith

My older son struggled with an Astrocytoma, Grade Three, for over four years; initially the surgeon gave him three months to live, but he lived another four years after the surgery. Our family was as supportive as we could be but felt rather helpless as he fought the progress of the cancer.

It was during this time I began to often refer to Proverbs 3:5-6 for a feeling of peace regarding his struggles.

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

There was no way I could ever understand why this was happening, I could only trust in the Lord that his will for my son’s life was being fulfilled in accordance with his divine plan. My son is a strong Christian, (I use present tense as my son is still alive and home with the Lord) and is now seeing and experiencing wonders I cannot even imagine; at God’s appointed time, I will join him and give him a big hug!

For reasons known only to God, I’m still in my mortal body and functioning at a reasonable level as God continues to work on me. I’ve outlived all of my male ancestors, of which I have a record, by many years. I fully acknowledge my times are in God’s hands.

It appears the Lord is not through chipping away the parts that doesn’t look like Jesus; I guess some of us take a little more work. I’ll leave all that in God’s very capable hands and, in the meantime, try to serve him as faithfully as I possibly can.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

Philippians 4:4