Unlike a bookshelf or barbecue pit you need to assemble (almost always guaranteed to have a bolt or two left over when you’re done), we come into this world whole. No assembly required.

Like a bookshelf or barbeque pit, we also come with a full Manufacturer’s warranty. If loss, damage, or any part of us becomes broken, we can return ourselves back to God to be fully restored, never replaced!  Unfortunately, life has its way of disassembling what was once whole.

What God Made is Good

The truth is that we were made in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created humankind in his image. Verse 31 continues, “God saw everything that he made, and indeed, it was very good.” (NASV)

We came into being with all the right parts, fully assembled. Those parts are the framework in which we live life in Spirit with: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22)

When we live with these qualities we have in our possession, we live as whole, peaceful, loving, content, human beings. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.” (Berean Study Bible)

We Are God’s Masterpiece

The New Living Translation says, “We are God’s masterpiece.” The dictionary defines masterpiece as a person’s most excellent production. I love that word masterpiece! I don’t know about you, but if I say the words, “I am a masterpiece!”, how amazing is that ?!!? That is a powerful, affirmation of truth!

Claim God’s Manufacturer’s Warranty

Life breaks us, though, through events that shatter our innocence, trust, or relationships that break our hearts. We need to claim our Creator’s manufacturer’s warranty of restoration.

Feelings of shame, blame, hurt, anger, etc., will cause us to feel separate from God. This feeling of separation only increases our suffering. We are never separate.

The apostle Paul says in Acts 17:24, and 28, “The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. For ‘In Him, we live and move and have our being;’ as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.” (NRSV)

When we allow fear (the obsessive, non-life-threatening kind), sadness (the perpetual kind), anxiety, impatience, meanness, stinginess, doubts, anger (the constant, unwarranted kind), and reckless behavior to enter in, we’ve allowed these thoughts and actions to deface our masterpiece like ugly graffiti.

This ugliness represents disempowering lies that you are flawed, broken, unworthy, not capable, too young, too old, not educated, whatever beliefs you hold to cover up the masterpiece that is you.

Your Manufacturer’s warranty lasts more than a lifetime, it lasts forever! Allow God to perform a factory reset in you, restoring you to your original state of goodness and wholeness. When those negative thoughts creep in, say, “I am a masterpiece!”

If you want to join me in living life with joy and flow, I’ll send you encouragement each Monday morning with a scripture for you to think about along with the Four Steps to Flow.