Working with God

 

As I walked around my neighborhood, I came upon this collection of objects set out on the curb for Monday morning’s trash pick up. The largest part of this offering consisted of carefully cut boards. Various lengths, different sizes, but all carefully and uniformly cut with an obviously well-honed blade.

It was clear that something had been built in this house. You could tell from what was left for scrap from the job, but these remains offered no clue as to what that something was. The size of the pieces of wood reminded me of good times with my daddy, building something on the work bench of his shop. We once built a model frontier fort, constructed of carefully cut tree branches of exact diameter and length. It was slow and detailed work, but that didn’t bother me. The more time the better as far as I was concerned when I had my dad to myself. I never wanted to finish a task or chore.

Sometimes it is hard to tell what we are making of ourselves, and even harder to see what God might be trying to make of us or of others. We get trimmed and sanded and reconfigured. At any point along the way, we might not look like much. At any point along the way it may be only what is discarded that is visible, not what we are becoming.

The scriptures teach that “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” We don’t decide, other than to give ourselves over to God’s work, who we will become or who someone else is becoming. We are too limited in our vision. We would always sell ourselves short. We would definitely always sell each other short.

Instead, let us embrace the unknown, the mystery of it. Let us not judge what God is doing by the rejected pieces of our own, or anyone else’s, life. Instead, let us enjoy working with God, savoring those moments when it seems we have God all to ourselves.

Peace.