“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:10
It was the stone the builders—or shall we say the sculptors—rejected.
A giant slab of marble cut from the rock in the old Fantiscritti quarry near Carrara then transported down the Arno River to the Florence Cathedral. It was meant to become a towering statue of David, the prophet king of the Bible, a figure of particular relevance to the city-state of Florence, which over the years had maintained its independence from larger, more powerful nations.
Despite its auspicious start, work on the marble slab barely got off the ground. Two different sculptors were commissioned at intervals along the way and made a few chisel marks here and there, but for reasons we don’t fully understand, the project was eventually abandoned. It couldn’t “rot” because it was stone, but it might as well have been rotting. No one wanted Il Gigante (the Giant) and for twenty-five years, in all kinds of weather, the marble block lay on the ground in a corner of the church courtyard—of no use or interest to anyone—until the Master laid eyes on it. He saw something there; better yet, he saw something inside the marble that others did not see. He saw the statue that would become his famous David standing nearly seventeen feet tall and still considered by many as the greatest sculpture ever created.
And he was but 26 years old.
As Michelangelo would say later in life about his approach to sculpting, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block before I start my work. It is already there. I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”
Which leads me to a question. How many of us might compare ourselves to Il Gigante, the slab of marble no one wanted? Might that describe you? I know it describes me at times.
Here’s my thought process. Let me know if it sounds familiar. We’ve been cut out for something great (so our mothers told us), but we now find ourselves lying unceremoniously in the weeds—forgotten, unused, overlooked. Time has passed us by, and we have, to all appearances, failed to achieve our destiny, that bright destiny which sparkled before us in our youth. We have not lived the life we were destined to live. So it seems.
But I have some good news. God sees what others cannot see. He sees the work of art hidden in the rock. He sees us as “wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). And if we will allow him to chisel away at the “superfluous material” surrounding our lives, we will come forth in splendor. We will come forth in beauty and greatness. For we are his workmanship, his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.
So, don’t give up, dear friend. And don’t sell yourself short. The Divine Master sees potential in you that no one—not even your mother—can see. He sees David in the marble. He sees the man… the woman… you are meant to be regardless of outer circumstance or appearance. Let him do his work. Trust him with the chisel. You are a masterpiece in the making. God loves you and so do I.
Su servidor,
* Photo credit: Michelangelo’s David by Maksim Sokolov, licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0
