Because we are not yet masters, God has not asked us to produce a masterpiece. Instead, he invites us into his workshop as apprentices to Jesus Christ.
At age 17, I struggled to pound and twist and mold my messy life into a masterpiece. Alone, I strove to right my wrongs. Alone, I slumped under mounting burdens. Alone, I strained to polish myself so that I could someday present my life to the Savior and receive salvation. But working alone was never what God intended.
Image by Clem Onojeghuo
The Savior dedicated his life to ensure that we would never have to achieve perfection alone. In a BYU devotional titled “Created in the ‘Image and Likeness of God’: Apprentices in the Master’s Workshop,” Dr. David Rolph Seely relates his own experience trying to make his life a masterpiece. When he asked the Lord what aspect of his life was a masterpiece, “the Lord said to [him], ‘But you are not a master, so why do you think you can produce a masterpiece? You are just an apprentice in my workshop.’”
Dr. Seely teaches that “only the Master can make a masterpiece, and only He can make us in His own image.” God did not plan for us to struggle or polish our lives alone. Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father invite us into the workshop so that we can become like them and follow their ways. Christ polishes us and reinforces our weak places; he teaches us how to be his hands. In the workshop, we are learning to imitate Christ so “that when he shall appear we shall be like him” (Moroni 7:48).
Discover how to become the Savior’s apprentice by reading David Rolph Seely’s BYU devotional, “Created in the ‘Image and Likeness of God’: Apprentices in the Master’s Workshop.”
Source: BYU Speeches
—Brooklyn Hughes, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY BURST
Find more insights
Want to learn more about how Christ works in our lives? Read Abby Forrest’s Latter-day Saint Insights article “How Jacob 5 Helped me Cope with Sickness and Grief.”