Philippians 1:6 – God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won’t stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns. (CEV)

My husband works with wood; he does all kinds of woodworking. He has renovated our home; he makes tables for others; he builds shelves or walls where needed at work. Furniture is the thing that he likes to build. He has built shelves, and coffee tables, and entertainment centres, and a number of other things.

The one thing in common with all woodwork is that the rough wood has be finished. There are nail holes that need to be filled. The roughness has to be smoothed. The procedure to achieve the desired effect is that the wood has to be sanded. It is a big job. I have watched my husband during this process. He sands for a while, then stops and runs his hand over the sanded area to see how it feels. It might still be a little rough, so he sands some more. He keeps repeating this until the wood has the desired smoothness. He then stains it and varnishes it to produce the finished product.

This is so much like our lives. God looks at us and envisions the finished product. But we aren’t finished yet. We have a few holes to be filled. We have rough spots to be sanded. I can picture Jesus looking down, rubbing those sanded areas, to see how smooth we are becoming. Maybe it isn’t quite right, so we are sanded a bit more. Eventually, that area is okay but there is another one that should be sanded as well. The process continues all through life. When we reach glory, God will look at us, pleased with His finished work in us.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You that You work in our lives. You sand this area and that area. Even though the sanding times aren’t pleasant, we do yield to those times and accept them as from You for our good and for Your glory. Amen.

Judy Miller gjmiller@telusplanet.net

Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada

Thanks to http://daily.presbycan.ca