The slab of white marble stood there, large and very heavy, but otherwise uninteresting. Just a big cold rectangle of lifeless stone, sitting on the workshop floor, covered in dust.
That’s what most people saw.
One young man saw something completely different.
In August of 1501, a 26 year old artist by the name of Michelangelo was hired to make something beautiful out of this chunk of rock which had been sitting in the workshop for so long. More than two years later, after much careful labour, there stood a priceless masterpiece which has been jealously preserved over the centuries as it is truly irreplaceable.
Of course, this is the nearly seventeen foot tall statue of David, depicting him as a young man about to go to battle against the giant Goliath.
It is rumoured that upon being congratulated at the unveiling of this statue, someone asked Michelangelo,
“How in God’s name could you have achieved a masterpiece like this from a crude slab of marble?”
To which he replied, “It was easy, All I did was chip away everything that didn’t look like David.”
The statue of David had been there all along.
As long as that slab of marble had been in existence, it was hidden deep within. There were simply things there that weren’t David, which needed to be removed. And that’s exactly what the master sculptor did.
When you look at your self what do you see?
Do you see a failure? Someone who isn’t smart enough, not strong enough, someone who will never be enough? You shrink away from others, rarely making eye contact, imagining how the world looks down on you.
Imagining how God Himself must be disappointed with you.
Maybe you project yourself as someone who is better than everyone else. Deep down inside you feel small—insecure in who you think you are and you need to project an image of someone much greater that your perceived self. I am strong and independent! I don’t need anyone’s help! I can do…and try to do everything myself!
I will even earn God’s favour.
Both ways of thinking come from a position of ego. They are a false image of yourself. They are everything that is not you. Everything that needs to be chiselled off to reveal the real you who has always been there.
The creation poem in the book of Genesis tells us that we (mankind) were created in the image of God and God called us “good”. The Hebrew word used here is טוב which means, “complete”. Being made in the image of God means that we are the expression of God just as the light and heat from the Sun are the expression of the sun. It means that we are relational creatures who are made to live life receiving love from God and unselfishly pouring out what we have been given into others around us. We find our identity in who God says we are. Not who we think we are, or who others say we are.
Once we look to ourselves or others for our identity, we find ourselves behaving as we believe we are, based on false information…false identity. We lose our ability to receive love or pass it on as we start to perceive the world around us as a world of scarcity. We are driven deeper into this false reality until we see ourselves as an ugly and useless marble monolith.
The great sculptor sees who you truly are. He sees past the stone facade and admires the priceless work of art that IS you.
Why would you look to the opinion of other people to define you when the great sculptor already has? Will you let Him take hammer and chisel to your false self so that you can experience life as you were meant to live?
Fully Alive.
This is a time consuming endeavour which will not always be enjoyable, in fact, it will be at times—painful! It’s never easy letting go of everything that we thought gave us meaning and security, but oh the relief when that crushing weight falls to the ground with the relentless and precise chipping away of the hammer and chisel. As Soren Kierkegaard has said, “Now with the help of God, I shall become myself.”
Meister Eckhart also brilliantly states, “God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.”
Now it’s one thing to be told that you and I were created “good”, but how do we understand that we have never become “bad” in our very essence, especially knowing the things that we do? God demonstrates this thing called “grace” which is to treat us like who we are instead of how we behave. This grace was dramatically demonstrated to humanity in person of Jesus as He revealed to us who God is and who we are.
Daniel Skillman writes, “God doesn’t love you because of what Jesus did.
God loves you simply for you.
Jesus did what He did because God loves you.
So, to be clear, you are not some filthy worm that God has to cover up with Jesus’ identity to love you.
Rather, Jesus’ self sacrifice is God’s expression of God’s love for you just as you are.”
Let’s live in a way that recognizes the irreplaceable value—the work of art that is you and me, and everyone else on this planet.