What words do you think God would use to describe you? Child, son, daughter, beloved…
What about masterpiece?
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10
In God’s eyes, we are all his masterpiece.
To illustrate this truth, John Burke compares each of us to an original masterpiece painted by a one of a kind artist.
“Imagine if one day you were at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia where this famous masterpiece hangs. You’re walking out back, and there in a dumpster you see a painting, but it’s covered in mud, it’s stained and it’s worn, but you realize it’s Rembrandt’s famous painting of the Prodigal Son.”
What would you do if you found that priceless work of art?
“Would you treat it trash? Would you treat it like mud? It’s muddy, stained, and torn.”
“Or would you realize that even though it’s damaged, it’s still worth millions and millions of dollars because it’s an original. It is from the hand of the master.”
John says that we would all know that this painting is worth more than it appears.
“We would take it carefully to a master who could restore it to its original value. If we could see through the mud to the masterpiece in a painting, can we do the same in a human being? Can we see the masterpiece God created under the mud, or do we just see the mud of their sin or their stain?”
Before you were even born, God saw what He created you to be; a beautiful masterpiece made in His image.
John Burke is a New York Times Bestselling author and the co-founder of Gateway Church in Austin, Texas. John is also the president of Gateway Leadership Initiative, a nonprofit organization. As an international speaker, John has addressed hundreds of thousands of people in twenty countries on topics of leadership and spiritual growth.
Unshockable Love
