Unfinished

Unfinished Left Hand (Graphite) 2007 or 2008

We recently travelled back to my parents' house for my nephew's first birthday party. Tucked away behind a drawer, I saw a large drawing pad that I had forgotten about for some time. I found this drawing (roughly 2x scale of my left hand). It remains unfinished. I think that it was roughly 8 years ago. Around my time in seminary, I started to draw hands a lot. I can't really say where my interest stems from. From an aesthetic perspective, there is something about the folds and abstract shapes. If I were to explore further than the aesthetic, there is something about the utility of hands. As I mentioned in my previous post, hands serve so many different purposes from what we do to what we receive. It is a little ironic that this drawing remains unfinished. Life's interruptions got in the way or I made plans for a project that I couldn't bring to completion. For a variety of reasons, this drawing will likely remain unfinished. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. I kind of like the fragmentary nature of it. It is a picture with a story. It is a picture frozen in the middle of the making.

Sometimes, that which remains unfinished teaches us the most important lessons. Sometimes, the incomplete shows us our limitations. We are tempted at times to think that our value derives from what we produce. But as Paul said, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth" (1 Cor. 3:6-7). Paul is making sure that the Corinthians do not elevate God's instruments above the God's work. An interesting thought from this metaphor of planting and watering is that the actions of God to bring about faith and sustain faith among the Corinthians—initiated through Paul and nurtured through Apollos—are two different aspects of a greater whole of God's plan. God's work is bigger than we are able to see and He can use different people for different tasks at different times while working it all together to bring about completion. But the real work is done by Him. Our value to God is found not in what we produce but because of His love. He brings to completion all things on our behalf. This fragmentary life is one lived in faith, not by sight. We don't always get to see the results and the completed work on this side of Jesus' return. But a day is coming when we will. God will not abandon His plan to bring to completion all things in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Jesus is the one who accomplished our atonement on the cross: "It is finished." Jesus is the one who after three days rose from the dead to never die again. Jesus is the one who will return to consummate the plan of restoration to the whole world. So as we go about our daily work, we don't always know what the work of our hands will finish. But we live in faith. All the work of our hands that is done in Christ is really in God's hands after all.