We are like the stones in this picture, polished and perfected by the unceasing action of the waves. We are part of a purpose and a Plan. Our Creator knows what He has created in a very intimate way, just as He knows the hard and soft places in these rocks in my grandson's awesome photo. He knows which waves to send at these stones, when to skim over them with gentle frothing ripples, and when to tumble them about with storm tossed breakers. They started out far different than the smooth stones we see here. There were jagged edges to plane down, there were scars and scrapes to polish away. The Creator of the Universe knows what purpose these stones have in His world. Day by day and wave by wave, He is fitting them for that purpose. He does the same for us.
When I read this verse in Philippians this morning, I started thinking about how God had been working in me since I had accepted His gift of Salvation. Over the years, slowly through many waves of good and bad times in my life, I have changed. There were times when I grew closer to Him. And there were times that my attention was so focused on what was happening around me that I seemed to coast. But now, as I look back, I see some of the things God was accomplishing in me, through the good times and the bad, the times when I felt closest to Him and the times I seemed to drift away. Every event in my life has had a purpose to God and I am just now beginning to realize it.
For it is by grace
you have been saved,
through faith—
and this is not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God—
not by works,
so that no one can boast.
For we are God’s handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus
to do good works,
which God prepared in advance
for us to do
Ephesians 2:8-10