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| An example of beautiful glass art from Dale Chihuly. For more fascinating artwork, check his website: http://42concepts.com/design/dale-chihuly |
I couldn’t help but wonder about the process of making such stunning creations. How in the world did he come up with such unique designs? Had anyone else ever done anything like this before? I wonder how difficult it would be to make these intricate shapes and blend such vibrant and beautiful colors. How did he transform those shapeless lumps into such gorgeous works of art?
On another trip with my kids, we attended a glass making demonstration and watched the master use extremely hot fire to melt and stretch the glass into the desired shape. He showed how he pounded and stretched some, squeezed and pinched some, pulled and twisted some – Ouch! I’m sure glad the glass doesn’t have feelings! What a mean process that would be if it did! It was so amazing to see how he manipulated the glass to create the beautiful designs.
The simple concept here is that true beauty often requires much pain, hard work, and a lot of time before it is achieved. Those beautiful works of glass art had to go through an elaborate process of painful manipulation before they reached their final state of magnificence, just as in our lives, God allows us to experience the pain of chiseling and molding to form us into His marvelous masterpieces.
This is true with anything that is beautiful or magnificent. Consider the excruciating process of developing the ballerinas who perform so majestically. I have seen the stretching, the work, the painful rehearsals. It is all necessary to accomplish such exquisiteness. Consider the hours and hours of painstaking rehearsal before the musicians in the symphony orchestra are able to perform with such breathtaking brilliance. Every masterpiece, from every genre, has a story of enduring a difficult, even painful process of achieving its beauty.
You are all the more a magnificent masterpiece in progress! Do you realize that? When God created you, He was so proud of His accomplishment. He looked at you with incredible love in His eyes and said, “This is good.” However, He didn’t stop there; that was only the beginning. He has begun a great work in you that He has promised to fulfill to completion (Philippians 1:6). He is working everything in our lives toward the goal of forming us into His image (Romans 8:28-29). Daily circumstances, decisions, trials, relationships, blessings, struggles, hurts, words spoken to us, lessons learned – He uses all of it to shape us in order that his splendor will be shown through us and that we will become “a special utensil for honorable use.” (2Timothy 2:21).
We are His favorite of all of His creation, and He placed a high price on us when He gave His very life to redeem us. It can be quite a long process for us to finally come to terms with our worth in Him, but then to go even deeper to embrace the work He is doing in our lives to beautify and strengthen us for His purpose takes a lot of faith, trust, and cooperation. We must not lose our faith or our sense of worth when we face the trials that come as part of the process. We may experience a lot of pain and confusing situations in our lives that can be difficult to understand (1 Peter 1:6-7). However, we can rest in the fact that He is using all of this to make us radiant from the inside out (Psalms 34:5). Think of it as God’s beauty treatments! When you think of the wonder of all He has created, imagine all the more the beauty of what He is forming within you!
Be patient with the process and understand the necessity of the pain and anguish you often must endure. God is doing a marvelous work in you through it all, and He gives you the grace and strength to endure. It will all be worth it when you finally reach the pinnacle of the process, and you approach your Heavenly Father, hearing Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” In the meantime, keep your eyes open to wonder of what God is doing in your life and appreciate how truly beautiful you already are. You are on your way!
Enjoy this extremely powerful video from The Skit Guys that illustrates the process I have been describing. God is chiseling anything out of our lives that is not like Him. It can be a painful process, but oh how awesome it is! Go Skit Guys!
