Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do notconform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:1,2
I’m always on the lookout for old planks of wood to use in craft projects. My daughter told me of a friend who cut wood as a hobby in his backyard and said he had a bunch of scrap wood I could go through if I wanted. Arriving at his house, he led me to the back and pointed to a small pile of cut lumber that had been sitting out in the rain and weather for months. He said that was their burn pile but I was welcome to any of it. There were pieces of walnut, maple and oak, but they all looked so ugly. Some of the maple was in the first stages of rotting and you could see where the ambrosia beetle had worked its way through, leaving black streaks in the light wood. They call it “spalted maple.” He said that I’d be surprised at how nice that might look. Well, with little confidence, I gathered a number of pieces and loaded the back of my car.
I had to brush off the old sawdust, the dirt, leaves, spiders and various other bugs covering the boards, and it still looked pretty ugly. With an idea in my mind, I cut it to size and began sanding with very rough sandpaper. As layer after layer started coming off, as the saw blade grooves began to disappear, the more excited I got as I began to see the beauty of the wood coming out. Using fine sandpaper, it became absolutely gorgeous. It still had the black streaks made by the ambrosia beetle, but now those steaks made it that much more beautiful. Cutting notches in the wood, the two pieces fit together perfectly to make a beautiful cross.
What a picture of God’s amazing grace. After a sinner comes to Christ, covered with the grime and filth of sin, Christ begins transforming them into “his workmanship” (Ephesians 2:10). The process is hard, it hurts, and often it takes time. A lot of excess material is removed, but eventually the result is a new creation. Even though the hardship of the former life left scars behind, the “new creation” has amazing beauty, not because of sin, but in spite of sin. By the amazing grace of Christ, the discarded wood that was only suitable for the burn pile is transformed into a beautiful piece of decoration.