The Master Designer

   The Master Designer at work

Recently one of our Day Star School ex- Students, Ashish came to visit us. Deepa took the opportunity to ask him to address the 9th and 10th grade students about his career. So Ashish shared about his job as an interior designer. He explained about the hard work that he put in to become a professional interior designer and his involvement  with various coworkers who help him to work on an old building and do the interior designing to make it different and beautiful.

This made me look at Jesus as the Interior Designer of the Soul. The original design got distorted and nobody knows what it was in the beginning. So the architect sent the interior designer to re-design our souls according to a different yet incredibly super model. This interior designer came and lived out the design and made the design visible. Initially he bought the human soul with an exorbitant price and decided to spend all his time to re-design the interior. He does not take much priority in the exterior aspect like a face-lift but his main work is deep inside where decisions and desires take origin. He knows that once minds and hearts are changed, LIFE itself will change. This is a long process and may take years. Once the redesigning is completed, the final look will be an image of the designer himself.

You and I are called to look at the designer and see the beauty of his person, his attitudes and life style. Once we see this as the best model, then it will motivate us to submit to the designer to start his redesigning process. It will be painful and we will resist each move, but his patient work will be revealed as the years go by. The designer is very kind and patient. He does his work very lovingly and with great excitement. He does not give up in between but waits for us to ask him again and again. He respects our freedom and treats us with dignity. So it is up to us whether we want our interior to be re-designed by the Master Designer.

         What the Master Designer has in mind is some thing totally different from our ideas. Jesus spelled it out partially when he addressed the crowd in Nazareth. In Isaiah 61 there was an echo of this re-designing process. In a nut shell it is all about creating 'a well lit spacious room with in us' from where beauty, joy and praise flow. Before this can take place the designer has to get rid of the spirit of despair. He needs to heal broken hearts and deal with the bondage of darkness, imprisonment, mourning and extreme sadness. This atmosphere of depression causes great anger in His heart and He takes the step towards doing something new in the human soul.  He planned to accomplish this by proclaiming and living out the good news. He has dealt with each of these dark shades in the human soul. His new colors consist of freedom, healing, comfort and release, finally resulting in the vibrant other worldly beauty, joy and praise. Once the work is done there is a feeling of rightness about this life and there is splendor and transformation.

Imagine yourself with these vibrant colors. As I look into myself, I long to see a person free of addictions, who has the capacity to say NO to the dark powers that enslave. I see a person healed of hurts caused by rejection, criticism and meanness. I see that I can rise up and face the world because I know who owns me. I see a person comforted and cared for by the most loving God. I see that there is no need for me to wallow in self pity and revert to worldly ways to get what I want. I see myself released from all my sins and self deception and entering rest from all my strivings. I see myself filled with Beauty as I see God's love all around me. I see myself as a beautiful person cherished by God Himself. I see myself filled with Joy unspeakable as I see God delights in me and His face shining upon me. I see myself opening my mouth in praise and gratitude for all that He has done for me. I see myself so thankful to God for choosing me and making me His focus of love.

I long to look at myself and see the spaciousness in my heart for God and for people. I want to see the Windows of my heart kept open to allow His light to come in. There is no darkness and everything is lit and open. I look at the response of the Designer when some one asked Him, 'where do you stay?’ He said, "Come and see ". What a welcoming attitude and openness! If I can truly believe and see myself thru the Designer's eyes, then I will live differently.

The Salvation Jesus offers is this RE-DESIGN. I can only trust His promises to complete the job. I need to look at myself with Him and see the progress. If I allow Him, He does something everyday. It may be small but significant from His perspective. He rejoices at the smallest move I make towards Him as He knows how difficult it is to unlearn old patterns of behaviors and the pressure to remain as I am. So He rejoices over me even as I take a small step in this transformational process. Let the re-design begin!