Masterpiece

For You shaped me, inside and out. You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath. I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe. You have approached even the smallest details with excellence; Your works are wonderful; I carry this knowledge deep within my soul.  (Psalm 139:13-14 VOICE)
We have probably heard that little quip, "God don't make no junk". We could also say, "God doesn't make mistakes".  Consider this for just a moment...
When God made you and I, he made us "IN his own image" (Genesis 1:26).  "Now let us conceive a new creation - humanity - made in our image, fashioned according to our likeness."  When we complain about the "image" we bear, we are really saying we don't like the image of God, since we are fashioned "according to the likeness of God".  If a sculptor had a model upon a stool for a whole day, chipping away at the stone from which he would fashion the "likeness" of the one on the stool, wouldn't it be expected the "image" of what he created would closely resemble the model?  Certainly!  That is the purpose of the model!  To have a "pattern" to follow.  I will leave us with a little list of things to consider anytime we want to complain about the way God has created us:
1. We are acceptable to God - completely forgiven - so nothing we "do" or "don't do" is going to make us more acceptable to him. (Romans 5:1)
2. Because of the work of Christ on our behalf, we are made new - even the stuff we think would make us "unacceptable" or "flawed goods" in some respect really aren't part of who we are any longer. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
3. We may have BEEN sinners, but that is not who we are once we say "yes" to Jesus - we are now "grace-born" and as such, we are no longer under the rule or control of sin in our lives.  Sure, sin's pull still exists, but we are no longer defined as "sinner", but as "saint".  (Romans 6:1-6)
4. The "old me" may want to take control on occasion, but I need to remember I am a new creation - old things don't have to control me (or you). We may think we cannot ever move from doing the "bad stuff" we once did into a place of doing the "good stuff" we want to do, but truth be told, we live by a new life resident within us. (Galatians 2:20)
5. God calls us each a "masterpiece" - created in Christ's image - to do good works.  Any other "image" we might think we bear is really a "false image" because we are all masterpiece creations. (Ephesians 5:10)
God doesn't make junk!  In fact, he makes "junk" into masterpiece creations!  Just sayin!

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