Sir Edwin Landseer was one of the most famous artists of the Victorian Era. He was commissioned to do several official portraits of the royal family, and he even gave private painting lessons to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. One day he was visiting with a family at their mansion when someone spilled a pitcher of soda water, leaving a stain on the wall.
The family went out for the day, but Landseer stayed behind. He used charcoal and paint to incorporate the stain into a beautiful mural on the wall. What had once been an unsightly stain was turned into a waterfall surrounded by trees and animals. Landseer was able to turn a mess into a masterpiece. That is why Ephesians 2:10 is one of my favorite Bible verses. Paul said, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
The Greek word translated as workmanship is poima;it has been translated elsewhere as masterpiece, and it gives us the English word poem.In that same chapter Paul described what a mess life was before Christ—we were dead in our trespasses and sins, walking with the devil according to world’s schemes, and children of God’s wrath. But God, who is rich in mercy, turned us from a mess to a masterpiece. We were made aware of Jesus in verse four, made alive through Jesus in verse five, and ascended with Jesus in verse six. We are now God’s masterpiece. Like a Nobel laureate crafting a perfect lyric, Jesus has made us into something noteworthy.
That is how God thinks of His children. If you have been saved, you are now Shakespeare’s 23rdSonnet. You are Beethoven’s 5thSymphony. You are Michelangelo’s David. You are Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Don’t let the devil tell you that you are nothing. When God looks at you He sees His masterpiece. If you have not been saved, you are still dead in your trespasses and sins. Let the Master work His magic, and see what masterpiece He can make out of you.
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