My dad bought a boat dock on Norfork Lake when I was five years old and we moved from Charleston, Missouri to Gamaliel, Arkansas. It was a great experience and we lived about 75 yards from the water. I reused to love going to the waters edge and just turning left and walking down the shore until I got tired, or bored. Then I would turn around and walk back to the house. On one of those walks I noticed a big piece of driftwood floating close to shore. So I pulled it onto the shore and proceeded to try to take it back to the house. It was kind of heavy so the task was very tiring. After about 50 yards I gave up pulling it along the shore and left it. The next day I went back and to my surprise it was much lighter! When I tried to pull it the first time it was full of water and after laying on the shore the sun caused the water to evaporate and it was much lighter and easier to pull. I took it home and showed it to my brother and he decided he was going to make something artistic out of it. He got a chainsaw and started "forming" it and before long he had made something that resembled....a piece of driftwood, without the extra branches. He finally gave up and left it and my dad came home and threw the old piece of driftwood out into the woods. No wonderful artwork came from it and it was thrown out to just rot away.
What could have happened if that piece of driftwood had fallen in the hands of a great artist who knew just what to do to form it into a masterpiece. Oh how great it would become!! A seemingly dead piece of wood would come to life as a work of art. This is just what happens to us when we come to receive Jesus and He brings the beauty of His creation to life. Yes, we are God's creation and we have value in God's eyes, praise God! The Great Creator takes a worthless sinner and gives us value because of what He sees in each of us. And because of the sacrifice of Jesus we are no longer just driftwood, but a piece of art formed by His loving hand of mercy. Psalm 139:13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 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.
Just like the artist sees what can become of the piece of driftwood, God sees and knows what we can become in Him. God is the great artist, the great designer and He has brought us to life through His Son. The Salvation we have now received is just the beginning of God's great plans for each of us who received Him. We are not just driftwood, but artistic expressions of God's grace and salvation. Of course, we realize that we are clay in the hands of the Master Creator, but God forms that clay into something very valuable and rich.The Prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 64:8 And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.
Rest in the hands of the Master and know that He is forming each of us into something of value to Him and His plans. It truly is an act of surrender on our part, but that surrender has the beautiful completion of something wonderfully made. Our lives become lives not just drifting aimlessly about, but lives of purpose that are truly alive. Ephesians 2:4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
We are a work in progress and we must realize more and more our purpose as we ask, seek, and knock. So much more than just driftwood. So much more than just tossed aside. So much more.... There truly is a sanctity to life!!!
The Pilgrimage continues......
David Warren
Comments