Workmanship

Workmanship

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which Go prepared in advance for us to do.

A group of iron rods and bars stand silently in the corner. They are ready to be shaped and formed by heat and the skill of the blacksmith. In his mind, he already has a clear vision of what each piece will become. He knows the purpose that he has for each piece of iron.

He picks up the first bar and thrusts it into the coals on the forge. Whoosh, whoosh sound the bellows pumping air into the fire till the coals are red hot. After a moment, he pulls out the bar which is glowing like sunrise as he places it on the anvil. “Din, din”, pause, “din, din” metrically the smithy’s hammer slowly shapes the metal. His skill will take the raw metal and fashion it into a beautiful curl for the top of a gate.

Conversion of a Christian is not the final product. It is the beginning of the process and not the end. Each of us was saved from the garbage heap for a purpose. Taken from the ash heap of the world, we are raw material that the master will shape and put to use. He is the one who created every human being in the world and gave them the character and qualities that are packed in their DNA.

Yet all that potential is worthless till the master takes you in his hands. He will use the harsh trials of life as a crucible to make each person malleable and open to his forming. He uses obstacles and opportunities to mold and form a person into the person that God knows that they can be. We may try to shape ourselves, but we will fail. Only the skill of the master can recreate a person reclaimed from the world into a thing of beauty who will change the world.

We are his workmanship created and recreated to do good works. He is the one who has made the raw material of each man and woman. He saved it and we are His. He reworks us through life, if we let Him, into a useful tool that will be a blessing to ourselves, our families, and our community.