Working Together With God

 

"God reconciled us to himself throughChrist, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation…  In this way, we are working together with God" (2Corinthians 5:18, 6:1).  Imagine that you've been apprenticed to Michelangelo, the creative genius and celebrated Renaissance artist. You're a novice, but he has invited you to participate with him in painting "The  Creation of  Adam" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Your assignment is to fill in a tiny portion of a fold in the drapery behind the form of the Creator.  So you work for hours, lying on your back on a rickety, wooden scaffold, 65 feet off the chapel floor, wet lime plaster falling on your face and irritating your eyes, knowing that no one on earth will acknowledge your contribution.  But you will have added to the beauty of the whole. The painting would be incomplete without you.   Paul makes a remarkable statement in the text above, one easily lost in the misplaced chapter heading: "So then, we are working together with God."  God alone has reconciled the world to himself in the Cross. Now he stands with arms wide open to receive all who will come. Yet, though he has done all to bring salvation to us, he has given you "the ministry of reconciliation," to those who come your way. The picture will be incomplete without you.  "But, I'm old," you say—or a house-bound invalid, a hard-pressed mother, a weary care-giver, a retired pastor with time on his, or her hands. “I'm out of the picture. What part can I play?" You can love and you can pray—mighty works as it happens, when you're working together with God. David Roper 11.10.22