{"id":286,"date":"2017-06-06T03:35:13","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T03:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/?p=286"},"modified":"2017-06-06T03:36:51","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T03:36:51","slug":"you-are-gods-poem-self-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/?p=286","title":{"rendered":"You are God\u2019s Poem & Self-portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhatever you are, be a good one.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

Abraham Lincoln<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few years ago, I visited the Norman Rockwell museum in Massachusetts with my family while on vacation. It was amazing to see many paintings and illustrations on display that I\u2019d seen in the Saturday Evening Post and other publications throughout my life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My favorite Rockwell painting is Norman Rockwell\u2019s own self-portrait. It\u2019s anything but serious. When we visited his studio, I was happy to see the same helmet hanging on the top of his easel that appears in his portrait. Rockwell bought the helmet in 1923 from an antiques dealer in Paris France. The dealer said it was a military relic. As it turns out, it was a modern French fireman\u2019s helmet. He kept it close by to remind himself of his own foolishness.<\/p>\n

Many other famous artists, including the likes of Durer, Rembrandt, Picasso, Van Gogh, and Dali painted self-portraits. If you were to do your own self-portrait, how would you do it? How do you see yourself? Serious? Comical? Winner? Loser? Hero? Clown?<\/p>\n

At Walt Disney World, you can buy a parody of Rockwell\u2019s self-portrait. It features Mickey Mouse seated in front of the easel, paint brush in hand. In this version, when Mickey looks at himself, he sees his creator, Walt Disney. I wonder, how do you think God sees you? Do you see you the way God does?<\/p>\n

Ephesians 2:10 says,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For\u00a0we are his workmanship,\u00a0created in Christ Jesus\u00a0for good works,\u00a0which God prepared beforehand,\u00a0that we should walk in them. (ESV)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You<\/em> are God\u2019s workmanship. That\u2019s right, God thinks you are a real piece of work! In Greek, the word \u201cworkmanship\u201d is poiema<\/u><\/em>, <\/strong>from which we get the word, poem. You are God\u2019s poem. Don\u2019t think about something wimpy. Think about Homer\u2019s Odyssey, or Beowulf who slayed the monster Grendel. Powerful poetry. That\u2019s you. Regardless of how you see yourself or how you feel about yourself, when God looks at you he sees an amazing work of art.<\/p>\n

That word, Poiema<\/em><\/strong>, is only used in one other place in the New Testament. That\u2019s in Romans 1:20.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities\u2014his eternal power and divine nature. So, they have no excuse for not knowing God.<\/em><\/strong> (NLT)<\/p>\n

Whenever God paints, He paints a self-portrait. That\u2019s the incredible scenery you enjoy when you are gardening, or hunting, or fishing, or hiking, or taking a walk. Even the powerful storm is part of how He is revealing Himself. And you are also one of the things He created.<\/p>\n

You are a part of God revealing Himself, right here, right now, just as you are, before you take one step. And being transformed in Christ, you are gifted and equipped to reach the whole world. You are God\u2019s powerful poem, part of His self-portrait, created to know Him and reflect Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhatever you are, be a good one.\u201d Abraham Lincoln A few years ago, I visited the Norman Rockwell museum in Massachusetts with my family while on vacation. It was amazing to see many paintings and illustrations on display that I\u2019d seen in the Saturday Evening Post and other publications throughout my life. My favorite Rockwell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[93,92,94,95,97,96],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7XNu6-4C","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.attemptgreatthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}