More Complete Every Day (Friday Devotional)

 

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

- 1 Corinthians 13:9-12

A few years back, one of the biggest fads going was adult coloring books. Once the exclusive province of elementary school students, black-and-white pages with intricate shapes waiting to be filled in suddenly captivated the nation’s grown-ups. Moms across the country sat down at the kitchen table next to their toddlers, with the moms carefully filling each shape in their mandalas as the toddlers decided which shade of red to color Elmo.

I can’t say I caught this particular wave, but I did try one or two adult coloring pages, and I saw the appeal. There was something enjoyable, even therapeutic, about the slow, deliberate work. What’s more, it was immensely satisfying to see the monochromatic page transform into an explosion of color, little by little. With every stroke of the colored pencil, the picture moved from an incomplete fraction of its potential into what it was always meant to be.

Scripture says that we are exactly like one of those pages, growing in Christ day by day into the fullness we will know in glory. Every day is an opportunity to color in another blank spot, to learn something new about what it means to know God and live for him. Every moment you draw breath is a chance to change, an occasion for action.

Some day your page will be finished and, as you stand before the throne of glory, all the incomplete parts of yourself will be filled in. You will see the Lord face to face and know fully, even as you are fully known. But for today, continue the slow, deliberate work of adding color where you can. With the Spirit as your guide, move from emptiness to fulfillment.