Without a doubt there are many basements,
garages, and possibly sowing baskets or closets containing unfinished projects.
They most likely started with great intentions. However, somewhere in the
project’s progress the intentions were possibly squelched by lack of funds,
insufficient skills, and time constraints, or the most likely – lost interest.
So the grand vision becomes a grand disappointment. It sits in some secluded
spot until it suddenly resurfaces as we are searching for something other than
that project. Upon seeing our unfinished masterpiece, possibly a tinge of
conscience tugs at our sensibilities and we exclaim, “I need to get to that
someday.” Perhaps what we need is a “closer” like the baseball pitcher that
enters a game to finish the game and place a mark in the win column. If there
was such an individual, I am sure he or she would be kept very busy addressing
the massive pile of unfinished intentions littering human existence.
In art history there is a great debate about some of the sculptures of Michelangelo
found in the Accademia Gallery museum in Florence, Italy. They are often referred
to as Michelangelo’s prisoners or slaves and named by scholars as “The
Awakening Slave,” “The Young Slave,” “The Bearded Slave,” and “The Atlas Slave.”
The prominent feature reflected in all of these sculptures is that they appear
unfinished. Art historians have given various interpretations regarding the
works and declare these are examples of Michelangelo’s practice, referred to as
“non-finito” (or incomplete). Of late some historians “now claimed that the
artist deliberately left them incomplete to represent this eternal struggle of
human beings to free themselves from their material trappings.” Good guess I
suppose. However, without Michelangelo's explanation it is mere conjecture as to why his studio looked like my garage – littered
with a number of unfinished projects.
When it comes to God, He is supremely better at completing what he
started. In the creation of the world and the universe Genesis 2:1 records,
“Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them, were finished.” When
caring for humanities great spiritual needs Jesus announces, “I have finished
the work which You [God the Father] have given Me to do,” and then on the cross
says, “It is finished” (John 17:4; 19:30). When it comes to describing
people who have chosen to put their trust in what Jesus had finished, the
Apostle Paul says, “You are complete in Him” (Colossians 2:10). He on another
occasion adds, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the
day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). So which is it? Are we complete or
will we be complete? The answer is, “Both.” We are a complete in that we are now
a child of God. However, all that we can be as a child of God is in the process
of being completed by being transformed into living like Christ (Romans 8:29).
Years ago a speaker used to give out buttons to be worn by people who
said they were followers of God. The button was printed with just a number of
capital letters, “PBPWMGINFWMY.” When people asked what the letters meant they
were told it meant, “Please be patient with me, God is not finished with me
yet.” It is good to know that Christians are not claiming they live perfectly;
they live purposefully – to be like the one they follow, Jesus Christ. Maybe
that is why the Apostle Paul wrote that Christians were “saved unto good works”
(Ephesians 2:10).
Could Michelangelo’s prisoners or slaves sculptures be a good picture of
what God is doing in Christians? In the Guide
to the Accademia Gallery they write, “Michelangelo believed the sculptor
was a tool of God, not creating but simply revealing the powerful figures
already contained in the marble. Michelangelo’s task was only to chip away the
excess.” God works in each of his children in such a way as to reveal what God
has designed them to be. Sometimes he needs to use the proverbial mallet and the
pointed chisel on a life to remove the unwanted material hiding what is there
and what could be. At other time God uses finer finishing tools to refine the
emerging image. The good news is this: God knows what He is doing and how it
needs to be done. A life may look unfinished, but perhaps what we are seeing is
a work in progress.
