Chipping Away

He looked and studied. He went from piece to piece. He was sure of what he was looking for but was having trouble finding just exactly the right one. Some were very large, some small. Some were long and not very tall while others were really tall but terribly skinny. He had made so many things before but now he was working on the most important project of all and it had to be just right. After what seemed like forever, he saw the edge of a piece he had not noticed before, way back in the back. It was hidden behind one of the huge pieces, and in the shadows. He asked to see it in the light. They asked, "Are you sure you want to see that one? It's not the best piece we have. It's cracked and scarred, and the color is not the most desirable. No one else wants that piece. Believe me, we've been trying to get rid of it for the longest time and no one is interested."

The master insisted. So, though it took a while and all the workers together to move things around, the big piece was moved and the piece he wanted was taken out of the warehouse into the beautiful warm sunlight of midday. He stood there with his chin in his hand and his arms folded in contemplation. He walked around and around the piece until the workers had given up and gone back to their menial tasks and the owner had just about become frustrated and impatient, when the master said, "I'll take it."

It was bought and paid for and details of its delivery were arranged. When it arrived, the servants of the master said, under their breath to each other, "That is the ugliest piece of marble I've ever seen." They didn't dare let the master hear them say such things but he knew that they were saying them just the same. The piece of marble, though supposed to be white was extraordinarily covered with dark grain and what would be called blemishes to most. It had cracks and chips in weak spots that had, obviously, over time been knocked away as it was moved from place to place in the warehouse. It had been seen by many over several years but was always discarded as unusable. It was cheap for its size because of its condition but that was not taken into consideration as reason for its purchase. Money was no object to this master and it never came into the pros or cons of the purchase of marble. At least not to him. His servants always questioned his decisions but they were generally happy with the outcome. I say generally because he had had many servants over the years and some were impossible to please and would have given up on a piece and discarded it, wasting all the time and money spent to that point due to their own laziness and lack of judgement. They had not lasted long as servants and had fallen by the wayside. They had gone on to their own selfish pursuits along the way. As the painstaking work began the hammer and chisel made their tink, tink, tink, sound for days, weeks, and months. The servants watched in amazement as the master chipped away at the cracks, scars, and blemishes that made this piece undesirable to others. He chipped away day and night, rarely stopping for rest or nourishment. His servants began to worry about him. He worked and worked and worked. He was chipping away when they left late at night and was already working when they arrived at the next morning's dawn. He kept most of the piece covered and so the progress could only be seen by him or someone he gave permission to see. After a while, the servants began to think that maybe the piece was not working out. It had, after all, been very damaged and scarred when it was purchased. Maybe the master was finally finding a piece he couldn't finish. Maybe he had met his match.

One morning before the sun came up, the servants entered the front door of the shop and they stopped dead in their tracks. Silence. They heard nothing but silence. No tink, tink, tink. No sanding, hammering, or any other sound of tools at work. What could have happened? Could the master be finished? Is it possible he had given up? Or, worse yet, could he have collapsed from exhaustion? Quickly they ran to the back room. The master sat off to the side. His clothes were covered with the white, sparkling dust of marble. They were reflecting the light in the window from the early morning sun as it crept over the horizon in the east. As they walked further into the room they saw it. Standing at the other end of the workroom, looking larger than it had seemed in its raw state, was the most beautiful piece of work they had seen the master produce up until that moment. The scars were gone. The cracks seemed to have disappeared. The blemishes and discoloration had been taken away or so it seemed, until all that was left was a beautiful image. Tears came into the eyes of the servants and one by one they dropped to their knees. The image before them was so clean and beautiful that they could not express words to describe it. The master had truly outdone himself. The image before them was finished. The most perfect image they had ever seen...of Jesus.

God, the master, if we will let Him, takes those of us who are discarded, scarred, with blemishes, and cracked open with pain and suffering of this life and its sin, and chips away and sands and polishes until all that can be seen is a likeness of His son, Jesus Christ. If we will trust Him, and let him chip away at us the way He wants, it will be something of beauty beyond words. Cost means nothing to Him. He paid the ultimate price. Time means nothing to Him. A day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day to Him. When everyone discards us and gives up on us as useless and a waste of time, He will still be there chipping away, no matter what or how long it takes, until there we stand, in the light of His righteousness, and in the image of Jesus.