Works of Whose Hands? Acts 7

However the Most High doesn't live in temples made by human hands, as the prophet says, 'HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND EARTH IS MY FOOTSTOOL OF MY FEET; WHAT KIND OF HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME?' says the Lord, 'OR WHAT PLACE IS THERE FOR MY REPOSE? WAS IT NOT MY HAND WHICH MADE ALL THESE THINGS?' Acts 7:48-50

I love quilt shows, and even quilt guild meetings. My favorite part, aside from learning anything new in the quilting world, is show and tell. The part where I get to marvel (or try not to grimace) at the workmanship of the creative ladies around me. The patterns, the fabrics, the workmanship...all together, they can delight the eye. There has been more than once that petty theft has entered my mind. I WANT THAT ONE! It is perfect in every way. I couldn't do better.

One of the great things about living in Iowa at this time is that AQS (the American Quilting Society, in case you didn't know) is coming to Des Moines annually. It is an exhibit of the best quilts of people who enter their offerings. People exhibit from all over the world (and locally) and those chosen for the exhibit marvel the eye. In conjunction with it the AQS show is the Des Moines Quilt Guild Show. They have a featured quilter exhibit. And one year I stood, and stared, and cried. This woman made quilts that moved me. They were exquisite. They were marvelous. The pattern...the detail in design, quilting, color...the whole enchilada, as they say. The white glove gal came over as I stood there in total awe. She had the honor of spending hours with the quilts, guarding them from people who would venture a touch with bare, soiled hands. We talked of their beauty and craftsmanship. We marveled at how many of these time-consuming pieces she had created over the years.

Now I could describe them to you. I could relate the colors, patterns, tell of the quilting lines, but it would do you little good. YOU would have to see them for yourself to experience them. I cannot create in you the awe and wonder that I experienced that day. You need to be in their presence, understand the difficulty in doing what she did, understand color and design a little to appreciate them to the point of tears. And yet, as magnificent as they were, they are nothing compared with the God whose creativity they reflect. They are but cloth. Set a match to them and they would be reduced to a pile of ash.

Now take the master designer...the Lord God Himself. He gave instructions for the tabernacle to the inch. He describe the size and shape of every wall, curtain, vessel, and alter and lampstand in the place. It was FANTASTIC, and yet God reminded them that even at that, it was nothing compared to the things God created Himself. No silk flower will ever rival the flowers He created. No hybrid we cross will ever come to being without His original design. We can do NOTHING on our own. We have to take His design, His template, learn about it and how it works, and then and only then can we attempt to manipulate it to make something else, and usually that something else will lack a key ingredient that is necessary for our well-being. I was just told of an area in the desert southwest were people were breaking out in sores and getting really sick. They ate a diet rich in corn for generations, but suddenly, bang, there is a problem. It ended up that the process they used to mill the corn to make it store longer (an advantage in human eyes) removed the niacin from it, and the people were suffering from niacin deficiency! Adding niacin to their diets restored their health.

So here God says that no works of our hands can match His, even those works which He gives us to do! That is humbling. That is, well, admit it, frustrating to the human heart. We WANT to be like God. We wish we were in charge, that we could speak what is in our minds into fruition. Some of us really want to please God with our lives, with the gifts and talents He has given us, and yet our efforts end up woefully inadequate. And HE KNOWS THAT. He just asks us to obey. He asks us to worship, to honor, and to love Him.

The sad part of this passage isn't really our inadequacy. It is the fact that Stephen was scolding the religious leadership for their stiff-necked, closed-eared, resistant spirited response to the God they claimed to worship. He was pointing out that though they dwelt in the temple and bragged about it, they failed to recognize the God who designed it, placed it there to draw people to Himself, and led others astray with their false worship. He continue on calling them betrayers and murderers and persecutors of the prophets of God (and this would soon include himself, as they would stone him to death immediately). The fact that they did not see God in His own temple, did not recognize the Messiah preaching in their presence, did not yield to the Word of God or recognize their own hardness of heart when Christ healed people and all they could think about was that is was the Sabbath and somehow by doing good things He was breaking the law...they took their works and exalted them over the greater Works of God.

We are all in danger of that as humans. And humility is the only route out. When we get so full of ourselves or admire others to a fault and take their word and works over the Word and Works of God, we are in danger of getting Stephen's sermon preached to us. We need to look up, as Stephen did, and see God for Who He really IS. And “the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” (Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, hymn)