Complete, Not Too Complicated

Welcome to His Table For Two!  We are delighted you stopped by.  I have a special guest blogger today ~ my friend Maria Reyes.  We pray you are blessed as she shares her heart for Him!  

Maria and her husband, Tito,

and their beautiful children

Complete, Not Too Complicated
 "For I am confident of this, 

that He who began a good work in you 

will be faithful to complete it..."

Philippians 1:6

Have you ever taken on a project and then half way through you wish you hadn't?  With the excitement of a first-time mother, I took on one of those huge projects many years ago for the love of my first-born son.  Titus loved Sesame Street as a toddler, and I over-zealously decided that I would paint all of his favorite Sesame Street characters in full-size on his bedroom walls. 

With enthusiastic ambition, I started my artistic project with Elmo and Dorothy, then I moved on to Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster, Oscar and finally Big Bird.  Big Bird was enormous!  He took up one entire wall all on its own!

Whew...finally I was done!  

No, no, no, wait!  Super Grover!  I had almost forgotten Super Grover.  The room was not entirely complete without... Super Grover!  So, I decided that I would paint Grover suspended in mid-air in a flying position smack in the middle of Titus' biggest wall!

I knew exactly what I wanted Super Grover to look like.  Exactly!  But Grover in action was not an easy task.  Every time I attempted to sketch Grover's legs, they appeared to be dangling instead of flying.  Over and over and over,  I erased and re-sketched those long, furry, skinny, blue legs.  I grew so frustrated with Grover that at the end, I decided to leave him without legs at all!

Moving Titus' tall hutch across the room, I placed the convenient piece of furniture right underneath Grover.  It was perfect!  Perfect to hide the bottom part of Grover's body.  Only I would know Grover was unfinished and legless.  

The room looked great, even with Grover looking like he was flying from behind the hutch.  

But every time I saw Grover, I knew he was incomplete.  I knew I had not completed my Super Grover masterpiece.  Grover served as a gentle but poignant reminder to me.

So many times I have wondered Am I making it difficult for God to complete me and will be stubbornness or pride cause God to leave me this way?  Incomplete.  Just the way I had left Grover.  

See, I can be pretty difficult for Him to paint me just the way He always pictured me.  Not because He's not a great artist, but because I constantly resist Him.  There are things in my life that I refuse to surrender to Him.  And there are other things that I feel like no matter how hard I try to surrender them to Him, I can't.

Do you ever feel like you're a project too complicated for God to finish?

Philippians 1:6 tells us that God will never give up on us, no matter how difficult we may be or how complicated we make matters.  He doesn't leave us dangling.  He won't hide our imperfections behind a dresser because He didn't work to finish us.


The Lord diligently works on making us into the perfect masterpiece He created each of us to be.  You are not too complicated for our Creator!  He will never leave us unfinished.  He who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it!

For we are God’s workmanship, 

created in Christ Jesus to do good works, 

which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

Ephesians 2:10

Dear Lord, forgives us for resisting your work in our lives.  Change is difficult.   It's so much easier and more comfortable to remain the same.  But Lord, deep, deep inside, we truly desire to be made perfect in our Creator's eyes.  We don't just want to appear to be godly by hiding our imperfections.  We want You to complete us and to make us holy, just as you are Holy.  Thank you for promising that you would never give up on us.  Amen.

As a visitor to His Table For Two, if you take a moment to leave an encouraging comment for Maria, you will be entered to win my newest favorite book (Lisa had me at "spiritually clumsy"!)!!! Lisa Harper's book "Stumbling Into Grace"! 

By Maria Reyes

© 2012 by Maria Reyes. All rights reserved.