Completion

...I always pray with joy...being confident of this: that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:4,6

How many times am I reminded of this in my own life, or is an encouragement that I share with others - there's this tension of the "already/not yet" sort of living day by day as a follower of Jesus. The author of Hebrews says it well, too: For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (10:14) The verb tenses used there are significant: "has made" is past perfect tense - something that has been done and completed in the past. "Being made" is a very present tense verb - this is what's happening RIGHT NOW. We are in the process of being made holy, and Paul gives us above the time frame for when that's going to be finished.

Guess what Matt and I did a few weeks ago - we finished putting up the last of the siding (the horizontal wood boards) on his office of the west addition!

We began that project over seven years ago. And through all of those seven years, when we looked at that office, that is what Matt and I saw, even though everyone else just saw this:

from 2015

It's pretty neat to finally have what we've been able to see all along be visible to the rest of the world! And, like so many other things in life, our little lives here give us little glimpses into the truth of the bigger picture of what God's up to, what he is like. He, too, has a design for the lives of his people, and even though we can't always see it, either in ourselves or in others, that doesn't mean he can't see it, and it doesn't mean that there won't be a day when everyone will see it.

Oh, to see with eyes that can see what he sees. Come, Lord Jesus!!!