Picture yourself in the serenity of a spacious, rustic loft with oversized windows and the distinct aroma of paint. You are standing on a drop cloth in front of an easel holding your canvas. The picture is coming together nicely. You are in the process of adding definition, adding just the right highlights. As you proceed with the finishing touches, you are determined to give the work just the right mood you want portrayed. With every brushstroke you are becoming more aware that this is going to be your magnum opus. Leonardo de Vinci had Mona Lisa, Vincent Van Gogh had Starry Night, Claude Monet had Water Lilies—and this will be your finest work. Do you stop at “close enough”? How many times do you step back, sit on your stool, and inspect your work before returning your brush to the palette and onto the canvass. When do you stop this creative undertaking? There comes a point where you back away, sigh, and say, “That’s it. I have captured it.” As the creator behind this piece of art, you are completely satisfied. There is nothing left to tweak. How does it feel? Well, imagine this on a cosmic scale, and welcome to the seventh day of creation in Genesis. The Creator’s day of rest was not in order to recover from exhaustion, but a day of satisfied reflection on a finished work. On the sixth day, after the formation of His masterpiece, mankind, He declared everything “very good”. Talk about a good review, this project got the Divine seal of approval from the Trinity. So, what are the Father, Son, and Spirit looking at with such a sense of accomplishment? They are gazing at mankind, male and female, with a stare of loving adoration. For this, we were created. Without this, we are dysfunctional. After the fall with all of its consequences, the insatiable desire to know the Father’s full approval endures in the human heart. Countless misguided searches for ultimate satisfaction in all the wrong places end in disappointment. We yearn to experience full reconciliation with our Maker, blind to the fact it is already accomplished for us in Christ. The truth is, as a result of the finished work of Christ, we have been restored to the place we were designed to function, as fully approved and adored by the Father as Christ , Himself. Yes, it is that good. You are fully reconciled right here, right now. All this is yours, not by works of righteousness you have done, but by His mercy. You are fully restored in Christ. You are a new creation, part of a restored humanity with a lineage not traced back to fallen Adam, but straight to Christ. Accept your full identity now. Rest in it, and live out of it in union with Christ. As long as we maintain an “I am not” or even an “I am not, yet” identity, we will lapse into the religious “do-to-be” trap. Stop striving and rest in His love.
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