Someone once asked Rembrandt how he knew when a painting was finished. The great master replied, "A picture is finished when it expresses the artist's intention." Christians are much the same; we stop growing only when we fully express the Master's intentions. No one can say that his life is perfect in every respect. Therefore, all of us still have a lot of growing to do. Paul the apostle admitted: Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me (Philippians 3:12).
Tragically, some have given up, saying their lives never will express the meaning of the Master. Like Michelangelo's unfinished statue of Matthew, they feel the stone of their lives will not yield to the chisel of the Sculptor. How sad these are. While the clay is imperfect, the hands of the Potter are skilled. He can and will take the material of our lives and complete us as He desires.
May we realize that those things which come into our lives are being used by the Master to shape us. He is finishing us according to His plan; and one day, if we are faithful, our lives will indeed express everything He wants them to.
Paul encourages us to forget past failures and to be reaching forward to those things which are ahead (Philippians 3:13). Christ's work in us proceeds every day.
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”
Philippians 3:10 KJV
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