Perfect You

One of the ways you can know God is an artist is that He created anything at all. Not because He had to or even because He wanted to, but primarily because He needed to. (See yesterday's post.) The second way you can understand the artistry of God is to look in the mirror.

You...are perfect.

Most of us don't feel that way; I know I certainly don't most of the time. There are little things about myself, like there are little things about yourself, that don't feel perfect. They feel...disproportionate. They look....crooked. They are obviously...broken. Yet they are all turning out the way God wanted them or else, we'd look less like men and more like lumps.

The Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah. He said, 'Go to the potter's house. There I will give you my message.' I went to the potter's house, and he was working there at his wheel. Whenever a clay pot he was working on was ruined, he would rework it into a new clay pot the way he wanted to make it. The Lord spoke his word to me. The Lord asked, 'Nation of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter does with clay? Nation of Israel, you are like the clay in the potter's hands.  - Jeremiah 18:1-5

God's got the basic shape of you down. If it wasn't just right, He would have lumped you back together and started all over again. Which means, I know, bad news: that nose is your nose. Those feet? Your feet. That hair? That's your hair. And that's your elbow skin, too. When He looks at you, everything about you screams YOU! That's how God knows you're ready for this.

And what is this? This is your life.

This is every little thing God's going to bring you through to carve out the fine details of who you are. The intricate ornamentation of your personality. The intimacies of your spirit. With the smallest of tools, it is not any more that He is shaping you; the shape of your life is already perfect. No, He is defining you. He is distinguishing you.

This is the fire He will pass you through to cast you. To set some things in your heart. To solidify your shape. To make you the vessel you were designed to be, more than merely shape; now, you are usable.

This...is what He will fill you up with. It is everything He will pour into your life. The gifts. The blessings. The calling. His Spirit. Your spirit. Filling you up so you can pour Him out upon the little place in this world He's given you.

That's the thing about the clay pot. Back in the potter's day, it wasn't decoration; a clay pot was always used for something, whether that was to hold the valuable goods of the family kitchen or to hold the disgusting waste of the family latrine. (Some of you probably feel like latrines.) But the point is, it always had a purpose.

You have a purpose. And everything about you screams purpose.

Everything about you also screams art. You are the work of the Master's hands, and the Master is an artist by every sense of the word. Look at His creation. Look at the creation of you. 

You're a masterpiece.