ARTISTIC METAPHOR

YOU CAN HEAR CREATION GROAN FOR NEW LIFE…

We are like trees – cursed from the start. If you pay close attention, you can hear these creations groan under this burden – complaining and hoping for a new life. There is a struggle with adversity, and a threat of peril while, concurrently aspiring to become strong and great. Like giants, ravaged by pests, disease, and the powerful elements of nature, we fall to the earth. What remains is a form that no longer lives, but slowly decays and turns to dust. Life is lost. Through death, something exceptional and beautiful comes from the heartwood. This new creation is supernatural, delicate, full of soul, and testifies to its creator’s creativity and genius.

Unlike any other creation, we have been specifically designed to represent God’s image. Miserably, we find ourselves cursed under the weight of sin, and we crave a new body, and desire a mind that works right. Strangely beguiled and confused, we find an affinity to this cold, dark and ill-fated earth; we cringe at any thought of change or light. We need to be saved! Only some special favor from our Creator can reshape us and open our eyes. Only by this Artist’s grace can we live up to what is truly beautiful – the way of everlasting. This is first regeneration (from death to new life) and then a conversion – the change of direction we take once we’ve been saved.

Jesus, the Son of God, who upholds the creation with the power of His might, took our death upon himself. Through his body, work and blood, he gives new life, victory, and a living hope to all who believe. That’s what happened to me! The work of life in me as a new creation, has not ceased. I have become God’s workmanship, and he continues to carve away at me, turning my unappealing and unwanted ways into lovely and graceful ways. He desires that we all become a more beautiful representation of him. The place where the artist applies the chisel (the chisel point) is exactly where I need to transform.