“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. – Ezekiel 36: 26-27
It started out as a massive block of white Italian Carrara marble. Oddly enough, the other artists of the day considered the huge slab utterly useless, rejecting it on the spot. But a 26-year-old artist saw something that all the others could not see.
The young man was commissioned to begin work in 1501. It would take three full years before he would finally complete it. Upon unveiling his work to the Cathedral Vestry Board in 1504, it was decided by a committee (that included the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli) that the statue should be placed in a more public location. Once the Board decided it should reside in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, it reportedly took 40 men four full days to move the 17-feet tall, 12,000 pound statue one-half mile. It would be there in the Piazza that the young man would reveal the magnificence of his work to the world.
When asked how he went about carving out this work of art that he would be forever remembered for, the Statue of David, Michelangelo said:
“I created an image of David in my mind, and simply carved away everything that was not David.”
When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we become his followers, his disciples. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and begins to change us to become more like Him. Just as Michelangelo carved away everything that didn’t look like David, the Spirit admonishes us to remove everything about us that doesn’t resemble Jesus.
The apostle Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Notice what Paul says. We are not reformed. We are not rehabilitated. We’re not reeducated. We are recreated as new creatures living in union with Christ!
As magnificent as the statue of David is, some day it will become a heap of rubble. But those made new in Christ will reign in the glory of our Lord and Savior for all of eternity. We are considered priceless works of art to our Creator who made us!
Former Blackout Artist 