All the Pieces by Phil
My youngest daughter is my Chicago-ite, and for Christmas I wanted to make her something to remember her time there, no matter where she ends up in life. Both our girls also have almost nothing on their walls, (much to mama's chagrin) so the choice was easy - I'd make her some kind of wall art.
What I came up with was a mosaic of the Chicago skyline done with over 80 wooden strips of various sizes and thicknesses. Some of the pieces were big and sturdy, some were thin and fragile. When they were all stacked on my workbench they looked like a pile of scraps, but when joined together in the proper order and alignment, the final result was beautiful.
There was no way to work on each piece when the mosaic was complete, so those 80 pieces had to be cut to size, sanded and buffed to a reflective shine one at a time. It took quite a bit of time, but one of the biggest lessons I'm learning in woodworking is patience. (We have a saying I love - it takes as long as it takes. Good advice for many areas of life!) Each one had my individual attention as I shaped it into a complement of its fellow pieces so they would function together to complete my artistic vision. Do you see where I'm going here?
We are all part of God's artistic vision, which we know as the body of Christ or the church. Too often we expect God to shape and polish us when we are joined together once a week in worship, but that just won't cut it. God desires (and thankfully has the patience) to shape and polish us individually each day of our lives, if we will allow Him to and spend time with Him. Over time He will sand off our rough edges and bring us to a shine that reflects His image, but our ultimate purpose won't be fulfilled until we are joined with other believers in our local communities and throughout the ages (the church universal) to complete His master plan. And as with my mosaic, we don't lose our individuality when we are joined together, we just realize what we were designed for and where we fit in the bigger picture.
"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ... Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." - 1 Corinthians 12:12,27
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." - Hebrews 10:23-24
When you look at the picture above, you can't see the largest wooden piece. Invisible in the background is a backer board that encompasses the entire work. It is a single piece all the other pieces are attached to, adding strength and holding the whole thing together. When we admire the mosaic and each individual piece that makes it up, we know there is something behind the scene. It may not be visible to the eye, but it is the most important and crucial piece of the whole work.
I pray when the world looks at the church and each of us individually, they can sense there is something greater at work behind the scenes. And that knowledge will draw them into their own place in God's big picture.
Works in progress,
Phil and Pam
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