Last week at fellowship, we were having a discussion about whether we truly see ourselves as beautiful the way Abba has made us. Of course, we all know that beauty is not only outward, but the question still remains: do we think that we are physically beautiful? If not, the question then becomes: are you saying that God made a mistake?
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 139:14, NIV)
Though you may know this scripture, this doesn’t necessarily mean you believe it. Let’s be honest, even the Bible makes mention of when somebody was physically attractive. David, Joseph, Esther, Sarah and Rebekah were all known to be attractive / beautiful people. Whilst someone like Leah was known to have “weak eyes”... Then we have the Lord Jesus... look what the Bible says about Him:
“...There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him,” (Isaiah 53:2b, NLT)
To put it plainly, Jesus was physically unattractive; plain at best. Yet, who was more wonderful than He? People were drawn to Jesus, but not because of His physical appearance. Making Jesus’ physical appearance undesireable was deliberate on God’s part because what greater way is there to demonstrate internal beauty (love) than through a vessel outwardly considered the opposite? In other words, the Lord’s so called physical “unattractiveness” was purposeful and therefore a masterpiece. This reveals that what we look like is a part of God’s plan for our lives... I believe when we come to discover what that purpose is, that’s when we can truly start to see ourselves as a masterpiece. The same way we each do nothing to earn the gifts we are born with or without; similarly, the way we look has nothing to do with us. It’s God’s choice.
So back to the title of this blog post, Purpose makes a masterpiece.
We live in a generation that is obsessed with things looking flawless, fleeky, HD and crisp. No one seems to care about the purpose, as long as it looks good. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in quality and I like things to look nice. However, beauty doesn’t make something a masterpiece, purpose does. A video, image or person may have the best lighting, placement or highlight but if it has no purpose - and by that I mean HIS purpose - it really isn’t a masterpiece. Yes, you can have both purpose and “quality” or purpose and “beauty” if you like, but I am coming to realise that Abba will sometimes get you to do things and/or use people that are short of the ideal “quality ”, “beauty” or “perfection” in order to create a masterpiece in line with HIS purpose.... for His glory. If we choose to go for “quality”, “beauty” or “perfection” at these times, THAT is when we will miss His masterpiece. We must stay close to Him and in obedience to know which way He needs us to go and to recognise when He is working through another...
Recently, Abba has had me working on a short YouTube talk show series... I know it’s not perfect... I know there are things that could be done to improve the video, sound and lighting quality. However, I have limited time and resources and I am under instructions from Abba; I know He wants to get His message out and I sense His message runs deeper than even the words in the show... There’s something about me doing it that’s important. The funny thing is though, in putting my work out there I am putting myself up for scrutiny and comparison to work more "perfect" than mine (as with any artist); but for those with eyes to see and ears to hear the purpose behind this project, they will regard it as a masterpiece, flaws and all.
So I say all this to encourage you not to be obsessed with appearance but to see the masterpiece in purpose. There are different types of art... yes sometimes it’s the so called pretty things / people that God wants to use, but sometimes it’s those things / people that are a little unrefined or awkward. Both have a place. Both are masterpieces.
Let’s retrain our minds to recognise and appreciate purpose rather than just things that "look good"... obedience over appearance all day errr day. X
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