I am no artist. I do remember as a child taking putty in my hands, and trying to fashion an animal or another object that others might recognize. The soft and pliable material makes it quite easy to make mistakes and quite easy to correct them.
Human life also has a pliable character to it. Our parents and community shape us in subtle ways. Further experiences of life also will also shape us in ways of which we are aware and maybe not quite so aware. Our openness to people and to experience is part of what makes us such unpredictable persons.
If I think about it very long, I might think of some experiences I would just as soon put completely behind me. I might wish that God could simply remove them from my life. Yet, I realize that those experiences have also shaped the person I am today. God is so patient. The image of God I have at this point is that of God personally involved in our lives, using all the experiences of our lives to shape it and mold it, in such a way that God coaxes a new form of life out of us. God is that faithful to us, even when we are unfaithful to God. Even when we soil our lives morally and spiritually, God takes us as we are and, if we are open to the ways of God in our lives, God will shape us into new persons. Of course, that takes willingness to make a turn in our lives toward God. God keeps re-working, re-claiming, and re-cycling our lives. In the end, even the broken portions of our lives can become something beautiful for God.
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