“That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2nd Cor 12:10 (NIV)
In 1464, an artist named Agostino di Duccio was commissioned to create a statue of David from a chunk of marble over 17ft tall and weighing over 6 tons. The man (under the supervision of Donatello) began to work on it but after 2 years gave up. He had a vision but the rock was too large and cumbersome to work with. His vision was not working with the size of the rock.
The marble lay in storage for many years.
Then an artist named Antonio Rossellino decided that he could do it. He began to carve and chisel away at the chunk but only worked for a couple of months. The years in storage had begun to deteriorate the marble. The stone had many defects and the original tool marks left by di Duccio had created even more flaws. Those flaws made it nearly impossible for an artist to really do anything with this. His vision was not working with the imperfect nature of the rock.
So a marred, damaged and unformed chunk of marble sat in storage, destined to be worthless.
It was ruined by years of mishandling and broken visions.
A 26 year old unknown apprentice sculptor named Michelangelo was assigned to make this junk rock into something. Michelangelo decided to make the statue into what it should be and not what an artist wanted it to be. He saw the flaws and blemishes and scars left by the abandoning artists of its past and began to use those to the strength of the statue. Instead of working around these weak points, he worked with these weak points. He eventually finished: creating one of the most famous works of art of all time.
Something beautiful, strong and enduring created out of a scarred, flawed, discarded piece of stone...
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