Over the past few weeks, we’ve learnt a lot about ‘work in progress’. There are many stages to renovating things, most of which are unseen by the time the actual work is finished.
For example, the gate at the side of the building was worked on off-site and then brought to the building last week.
It was then painted with red oxide paint to help prevent rusting and to give added protection:
Then it was painted with black paint (several times!) to give it its final finish:
The end result looks great, but the other stages are now invisible to the casual observer. Hours of hard work have gone into many things which are largely unseen now, but the final effect only looks so good because of all the unseen work.
In the same way, we are all ‘works in progress’. God has lots of shaping to do in us, and so much of the refining and changing goes on unseen, in private, works of preparation that are largely invisible to the outside world: “…we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18) What we will be finally is not yet seen, but we know that when we see Jesus, we will be like Him (1 John 3:2).
It’s great to be able to look at a job on completion and see the finished work. But in the meantime, let’s remember that every stage in the job is crucial, and God’s not finished with us yet!