A craftsman…

Just a little tidbit that I want to share…

Something that my brother said to me a week or so ago really impressed me. We were talking about God working in people, and how it’s always a process. I don’t remember that section of the conversation specifically, but I do remember that we talked about how God has to often remind us of things He’s shown us in the past… sometimes He has to re-reveal things to me because we tend to forget as time goes by.

He mentioned how today’s society is a results-oriented society… we attend classes and receive training, and once we’ve been through it once, we’re expected to produce results. And he’s right. The vast majority of our culture IS that way.

The problem is that we tend to figure that God must be that way, too. That if He’s shown us something once and it doesn’t produce immediate, permanent change in our lives, then we’ve failed Him. We sometimes think that this means that He’s given up on us, then… or maybe that He’s altered His plan for our lives because we’re not measuring high enough for His original purpose. Sometimes we think that that mysterious thing called grace can’t possibly overcome the anger that He must be feeling over the fact that we’ve failed Him so many times.

This is why I liked the view of God that my brother shared with me, so very much. He pointed out that God isn’t a businessman… or a mass-producer. What is He? He is a craftsman.
Think of it! What does a dedicated craftsman do? Is he concerned with how fast he produces his masterpiece? Is he concerned with how much time and work it takes to perfect it? Not really! What concerns a craftsman the most is the finished product. His main desire is that it become what He intended it to be. If it’s not, then He patiently works away, whittling away, or adding, or shaping… dedicating as much time as is needed to get it right.

And so it is with us. “For we are His workmanship…”