For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:10
I have a confession to make. I am not really a poetry person. I’ve tried. I really want to be a poetry person, but poetry and I are just not a great match. In fact, I even studied a lot of poetry in college as my minor was Literature, but sadly I never really got the knack for understanding it. I really like the idea of poetry and I even try to read poetry every now and again, but most of the time, I find myself missing the point. I’d even like to be able to write poetry, but every time I’ve tried, the words just don’t come. Maybe I’m too linear, or maybe I haven’t practiced enough, or maybe I just need the right teacher.
Have you ever talked about or studied poetry with a real poetry person? I’ve had professors who were amazing poets! They could write amazing poetry and then when they read a poem, they were immediately able to analyze it with all the right words. These people will pick out ideas and concepts in places where I only see randomness. But it is actually the most interesting when you hear a poet describe their own poem. I just love that! This is when you hear the heart and passion behind the words. This is when the poem will jump off of the page and come to life.
I bring up poetry and poets today because in the passage above (Ephesians 2:10), the word that is translated as “handiwork” is the Greek word poēma, from which we get the word “poem.” This means that you could almost say that we are “God’s poem.” And if God wrote the poem that is you, then that means that we could call God a poet or The Poet. Wouldn’t it be great if we could talk to The Poet? Wouldn’t it be great if we could hear how he talks about his poetry? Would the poem just leap for joy and come alive, if The Poet could explain his poem?
I’d like to suggest to you that God, The Poet, did in fact explain his poetry to us when he gave us the words of scripture. The Bible is as much a book about who we are as it is a book about Who God is. In the pages of scripture, you will hear the voice of The Poet who wrote the poem that we call you. And I pray that as you read and study and explore the pages of scripture, you will understand how amazing all of God’s poetry is, but I really hope that you will look at the poem that is you and be able to say, “Wow, that is a really good poem!”
Josh Rose
Teaching Pastor