The Making of a M.O.D.E.L … be who you are DESIGNED to be

Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation. Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:10-11 (MSG)

The Crystal Cove Historic District in southern California is all a-bustle, noisy with hammer and saw. An infusion of cash into the coffers is sufficient to at least begin the restoration of the remaining vintage cottages dotting the bluffs. In the 1920s and 30s these summer homes were variously built as movie sets and respites for the rich and famous. To the casual onlooker today, sagging roofs, crumbling porches and boarded windows seem waiting to tumble down the cliff into the Pacific. Fortunately, in the eye of the historian their original design is sharply in focus.      

Tell me, do you keep your original design in focus? After all, God created man in his own image (Genesis 1:27). Then He blessed us with a virtual snapshot of that image in Jesus, the exact representation of (God’s) being (Hebrews 1:3). Now that makes me sit up and take notice. Jesus is the real deal, both the designer, being with the Father at creation, and the original design. And I possess the spiritual DNA to resemble the model.  

But God did not want us vying for recognition. Rather, He gave each one of us a particular design twist. Like Paul (architect) and Apollos (wall-builder), I have a gift that suits my shape. And all our gifts add up to showing off the Original, as long as you and I use them to build on the foundation of Jesus. I need to be who I am designed to be.

Too tough you say? Not really, even on those days when you feel as if your spirit is sagging, your will crumbling and your mind boarded up, in need of restoration like the Crystal Cove cottages. The Designer Himself is at work in you, keeping you in focus.   

I am coaxed into the fields of wildflowers by these words of Jesus: “They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?” (Luke 12:27-28). Just be you, the you you are DESIGNED to be!

Nancy P