For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).
God is shaping us like a master sculptor. Sometimes we might wonder why our life experiences seem like fate and accident rather than purposeful shaping. At such times we must trust him.
If God is shaping us for his purpose that means that I came from his hands. He has lent me to myself, as it were, entrusted gifts and talents to me, and one day he will require me back. He will say to me: ‘Now I shall see what you have done with yourself.’ Then I shall have to give myself back, just as I must return a car I have borrowed. And the owner will then see whether I have treated it and cared for it properly. If there is a dent in the body or the motor runs rough, he will count me responsible for it.
What am I going to say when God looks at me and says: ‘What have you done with your body, which I lent to you, with your gifts, skills and abilities which I gave to you, with your home, your children, your friends, whom I gave you along the way?’ What will I say when I stand there as one who has misused his body, squandered his gifts, filled them with scratches and dents?
We are God’s handiwork – a work in progress.
(Reverend Gordon)