Since we arrived home from Italy, my mind continues to mine the treasure trove of wonderful, beautiful memories shared with my girls. Oh how I thank the Lord for the priceless gift of those days with each of them. Someone asked me yesterday what was my favorite part of the trip, and my immediate answer was, "Being with our girls and sharing it all with them." Special places are wonderful...but beloved people are what really give our life joy and meaning. And sharing special places with beloved people, well, it doesn't get any better than that!
But of all the amazing things we had the privilege of seeing, there's probably one image that stands out most in my heart and mind. It was in Florence at the Accademia Gallery. We walked down a wide hallway containing six unfinished statues by Michelangelo and at far end of that hallway glimpsed the magnificent statue of David.
The unfinished works were powerfully moving--we felt we were watching someone ensnared in the marble, and they were struggling to break free.
And what makes it even more remarkable is that the block of marble he used was considered defective. Several other sculptors had tried to use it and said it was of inferior quality and couldn't be used to make any kind of sculpture. (So many life lessons just in that! God makes no mistakes, and by His grace, He loves to take nobodies and turn them into somebodies. What a God we serve...but that's for another day! Back to David and the unfinished sculptures.)
“What, then, is marriage for? It is for helping each other to become our future glory-selves, the new creations that God will eventually make us. The common horizon husband and wife look toward is the Throne, and the holy, spotless, and blameless nature we will have.
Have you ever traveled to a mountainous part of the world when it was cloudy and rainy? You look out your windows and you can see almost nothing but the ground. Then the rain stops and the clouds part and you catch your breath because there, towering right over you, is this magnificent peak. But a couple of hours later the clouds roll in and it has vanished, and you don’t see it again for a good while. That is what it is like to get to know a Christian.
You have an old self and a new self (Ephesians 4:24). The old self is crippled with anxieties, the need to prove yourself, bad habits you can’t break, and many besetting sins and entrenched character flaws. The new self is still you, but you liberated from all your sins and flaws.
This new self is always a work in progress, and sometimes the clouds of the old self make it almost completely invisible. But sometimes the clouds really part, and you see the wisdom, courage, and love of which you are capable. It is a glimpse of where you are going.
Within this Christian vision for marriage, here’s what it means to fall in love. It is to look at another person and get a glimpse of the person God is creating, and to say, “I see who God is making you, and it excites me! I want to be part of that. I want to partner with you and God in the journey you are taking to his throne. And when we get there, I will look at your magnificence and say, ‘I always knew you could be like this. I got glimpses of it on earth, but now look at you!’”
Each spouse should see the great thing that Jesus is doing in the life of their mate through the Word, the gospel. Each spouse then should give him- or herself to be a vehicle for that work and envision the day that you will stand together before God, seeing each other presented in spotless beauty and glory.
My wife, Kathy, often says that most people, when they are looking for a spouse, are looking for a finished statue when they should be looking for a wonderful block of marble. Not so you can create the kind of person you want, but rather because you see what kind of person Jesus is making.
When Michelangelo was asked how he carved his magnificent David, his reply is reputed to have been, “I looked inside the marble and just took away the bits that weren’t David.” When looking for a marriage partner, each must be able to look inside the other and see what God is doing and be excited about being part of the process of liberating the emerging “new you.”
'If we let Him . . . He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less.' (C.S. Lewis)"That's what God is doing with and for every single one of us--as Paul says, we are "being transformed" into the beautiful likeness of Christ--from "one degree of glory to another." It's a long, slow, painful process, and some days we may feel as if we--or those we love--may never change. We may even despair that those rough edges of marble will never be chiseled away...oh, but they will. God is creating His uniquely designed masterpiece in and with each of us, and only heaven will ultimately reveal the magnificent finished product.
So until that day, might we trust the Perfect Sculptor who makes no mistakes and produces only beautiful, one-of-a-kind perfection in every one of His creations. Let's trust the Master Artist with who--and how--He is sculpting us and those that we love.
And might we lovingly join Him in His creative work with those people He has placed in our lives--whether our spouses, our children, our friends, or our family--by encouraging, exhorting, strengthening, building up, forgiving, and loving them. Seeing their "unfinished sculptures" with eyes of faith and love, because we trust and know that God--even in this very moment--is fashioning a magnificent, wondrous David out of a roughhewn block of marble.
For that is exactly what He is doing..."nothing less." To God be the glory.
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