“Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding? But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.” (Isaiah 29:14-16,23). I think that when we hear the phrase “great and marvelous work of the Lord”, a lot of us understand work to mean labor or effort. As in, this world has a lot of problems so let's roll up our sleeves and go to work. But God doesn't say I've got work to do, but rather, I will do a work. A great work. A masterpiece. A magnum opus. As it says in verse 23, the great and marvelous work that God is crafting is us, His children. We are each in our own rights exquisite works of art, but collectively, as a whole human family, we are a great and a marvelous work. We are all a part of a great work, and yes, that means thrusting in our sickle and laboring with our might, but just because the Lord calls us to be active in our worship of Him and in our service of our brothers and sisters, the degree to which we are or are not doing actual work has almost nothing to do with whether or not we are a part of the Lord's great and marvelous work. A beautifully crafted vase sculpted by the Master Potter can be used to carry water or flowers, or just sit empty and unused on the shelf, but however much or little work the vase is doing to hold things has nothing to do with the beauty and worth of that vase as a masterpiece and a great and marvelous work. Woe unto us if we try to take ourselves as the workmanship of our Master's hands and turn everything upside down and hide deep in the dark and tell the Master Potter that He didn't know what He was doing and we are no masterpiece. We are great and marvelous works and we deserve and have the duty to be set on a hill and shine forth as the light of the world. Others may see us give ourselves wholly and unreservedly into the Master's hand and accept the truth that we are great and marvelous works and we belong in the light for all to see, and those who are too afraid to forsake the shadows and embrace their own greatness and marvelousness will become jealous and angry with us and will try to smash us to pieces. But when that happens, Christ will only gather up the pieces and bind us back together with the pure gold of His grace so that we, like Japanese Kintsugi, become even more beautiful and an even greater and more marvelous work for having been broken and then repaired. Who are we to tell God what He can and can't do with His great and marvelous work? We need to stop worrying about being the best. We are already great and marvelous and we will become even more so if we just let go of our wrong-headed notions of what we are supposed to do and just plop ourselves down like clay on the Potter’s wheel and let the Lord turn us into His Magnum Opus.
