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You Are a Work in Progress

God loves who you are today and who you’ll be tomorrow.

Kayla Yiu May 22, 2022

What does God see when He looks at your life? Well, He sees far more than you see. We see ourselves as an unfinished product. We see ourselves, for example if it were a portrait, as being unfinished. When God looks at you, He not only sees you as you are, but beyond that, He sees what you can be, and what you will be: a person of worth and great promise.
—Charles F. Stanley, “You Are God’s Masterpiece”

Illustration by Adam Cruft

There’s a trend today, largely encouraged and enabled by social media, in which artists share their works in progress. Some take a photo of a canvas with its first strikes of paint or a video of spinning clay just beginning to resemble a pot. Others share a close-up of painting details or their process for developing photographs. In the past, most people saw only artists’ final result, the full and complete rendition. Inviting us to witness their work—not knowing how it will turn out—strikes me as both brave and vulnerable. But perhaps what they’re really doing is looking for beauty all along the way, believing that admiration shouldn’t be reserved only for completion.
Dr. Stanley reminds us that this is the way God sees us today—beautiful and loved just as we are. And it’s not because the Lord is proud of our progress or how “finished” we appear to be. He sees our beauty because it is His nature to love before something is deemed ready or worthy. Paul reminds us that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). The question is, if God sees us this way, can we also admire our own unfinished business? Can we also enjoy the beauty of our friends and family while they are in progress? That may be just the thing that enables us to love as Jesus loved and to care for our neighbors as ourselves.

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