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“Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:8 (NKJV)

My husband is a skilled wood turner. He has a lathe in the workshop down the hill from our home where he loves to create all sorts of wood products: bowls, candle holders, vases, lidded boxes – he’s even made urns. But his favorite is making segmented bowls. He cuts small pieces of exotic wood and then glues them together in intricate patterns. He turns them into bowls with wavy stripes, chevron stripes, or optical illusions. The creation of these bowls takes days of precision cutting and heavy concentration.

The final sanding is critical. If a bowl isn’t sanded properly, no matter how beautiful the design, the imperfections mar the look and feel of the piece. It’s not worth as much as it could be.

He recently made a gorgeous, segmented bowl from four kinds of exotic wood. The feature ring was a chevron stripe. It rivaled his other bowls in beauty, but it gave him some difficult challenges during production. What was worse, he didn’t feel well at all that week. So, he admitted that he gave it less than his best. There were some rough spots that he hoped the finish would cover. So, he applied three coats. As each coat dried, he buffed the finish to smooth out the little burrs. Each coat improved it a little, but when you looked at it and held it in your hands, it was obvious that it wasn’t perfect underneath.

Aren’t we like that? We tend to hide our imperfections, excuse them away, and pretend they’re not there. We put on the polish – go to church, get involved, do all the right things – but still, it’s only polish. Anyone who looks closely can easily see we have rough spots underneath.

My husband’s chevron bowl wasn’t its best until he put it back on the lathe. He removed the finish to get down to the bare wood. He gently chiseled away the imperfections, then took the time to sand it smooth. When that was done and the new finish was applied, it reached its highest potential. Its value doubled.

Similarly, the only way we can live at our highest potential is to allow God to work on us, effectively chiseling out the imperfections and sanding down the rough spots. It’s a process of daily working toward becoming perfect by yielding to His loving discipline in our lives.

Is it painful? Sometimes. But is it worth it? You bet. It’s the only path to joy, wholeness, and intimacy with Him.

“Father, thank you for salvation by which we become spiritually perfect and unblemished in Your eyes. But we’re still imperfect in our daily living. Help us yield to your chiseling and sanding away our rough spots so we can become more like You.”

For His Glory

Cherie Harbridge Williams
TRBC Women’s Life