The Pride of Dust
The master whittled away on a piece of wood He held in His hand. He stopped every so often to check out His work to see if it was finished yet. Finaly, the project reached completion. The Master admired his work as He placed His knife aside. This article was certainly one of perfection.
As He admired the work of His hands, His eye caught some movement on the shelf. The little knife He had worked with was parading itself around, showing off to the other tools what it had done. As the Master listened, He heard the little knife say, "Look what I did! I did it all by myself!" The words seemed to cut as an arrow into the Master's heart. He wondered how the little knife could so soon forget that He was the one who had helped it do the task.
As Christians, children of God, we reminisce about the wodnerful work Christ did for us on the cross. We remember Isaiah 53:5 which says, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him." We remember the story of the resurrection, how Christ arose from the dead, paying the ultimate price for our sins once and for all. But sometimes we forget that "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way..." (Isaiah 53:6). We forget Isaiah 64:6 which says, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."
When we forget our true state, we claim all honor and praise for ourselves. We look at soemthing we have done in the power of God and say, "Look what I can do!" We like to show off how great we are and let others marvel at our abilities and accomplishments when, in essence, we have not done anything ourselves. When we claim the glory for ourselves, our Lord watches with a saddened heart, feeling our rejection like an arrow piercing Him. Out of love for us, He pleads with His Father, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
Anything we do on our own is worthless in the face of God's perfection. When we take praise for what we have done ourselves and refuse to give it to God, we are acting like the selfish little pigs we are. After all, we are nothing but dust, and what does a bit of dirt have to marvel over?
We are but dust, a scrap of clay,
A tool in the Master's hands.
Why then do we in boasting say,
"I did it all on my own,"
When it should be not we ourselves,
But Christ that all praise demands?
Let's give all praise not to ourselves
But to God and God alone.
~Written by Jolea J. of TN
Submitted for Hidden Wisdom magazine,Vol. 47
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