BROKEN TO BEAUTIFUL

By: Dennis Harworth 

     There was an artisan in Italy that began working on a huge piece of beautiful Carrara marble, but he botched it.  He messed it up so badly that everyone thought it was beyond repair and unusable.  In fact, that giant piece of marble sat in the courtyard of this particular cathedral in Florence, Italy for one hundred years.  Artisans came and went and they all said that nothing could be done. 

     Finally, in the year 1505, a young sculptor by the name of Michelangelo was asked to come and look at what they called “The Giant”, still sitting in the courtyard.  He was asked if anything at all could be done to repair the mistake the previous artist had made. 

     Michelangelo studied it and studied it.  He looked at it, thought about, and finally saw out of that huge block of marble – the young shepherd boy David.  He immediately began to sketch out the drawing he saw in his heart and mind.  He then went to work skillfully and carefully with his chisel; diligently working on it for the next three years. 

     Finally, he allowed one of his students to look at the seventeen-foot-high, over six ton work he had just finished.  As Michelangelo unveiled it the student said, “Master, it only lacks one thing – speech.”

     Our lives are broken, messed up, and marred until we come into the hands of the master sculptor.  He can change us, fashion us inwardly and make something beautiful out of our life that was unusable and irreparable.

     The question is how can this miracle take place?  How can the hardness of our lives be fixed?  In Isaiah 53, Jesus became our substitution and replaced what was broken down, busted, and disgusted in our lives to make us beautiful, loved, strong, healed, and victorious.  All we have to do is just allow the Master to work in our lives to become His marvelous works of art.  Let’s look at how Jesus took our place and how His handiwork made a difference in us:

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance,

nothing to attract us to Him. Isaiah 53:2 (NLT)

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus… Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

He was despised and rejected— (Isaiah 53:3a, NLT)

He made us accepted in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:6, NKJV)

We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. (Isaiah 53:3c, NLT)

For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

(Hebrews 13:5, NKJV)

Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; (Isaiah 53:4a, NLT)

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13, NKJV)

He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

(Isaiah 53:5, NLT)

…By whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24, NKJV)

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter… (Isaiah 53:7, NLT)

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

(Romans 8:37, NKJV)

Unjustly condemned… (Isaiah 53:8, NLT)

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,

who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

(Romans 8:1, NKJV)

     Are you catching this?  It does not matter how much you feel like you are unusable and irreparable.  It does not matter how long you have been down and out.  Know that with God you are a masterpiece in the making.  Just like Michelangelo saw a beautiful sculpture waiting to be fashioned from a giant piece of messed up marble.  God sees you as His wonderful workmanship, ready to be displayed by our loving Creator as He forms you and takes you from BROKEN TO BEAUTIFUL.