God’s Work of Art

Frank Gasparro was an artist with very little name recognition, yet his artwork has been held by millions of people. You have owned one of his works. Frank designed the images on the penny. All pennies from 1959 through 2008 have his initials on them. If you look at the lower right of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the penny, you will see his initials FG.
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Because Frank created the penny, he loved it deeply. It was his. Supposedly Frank would share with cashiers that he designed the penny, even though none of them ever believed him. He was also known for picking up pennies lying on the ground, flabbergasted that someone would toss such a great piece of work on the ground.
Frank did not need the penny. He wanted the penny because He loved the penny, because He designed it. While most people do not think the penny is worth much, it was worth a lot to Frank Gasparro. His initials were on it.
In Psalm 8, David confessed to God, “When I observe Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You set in place, what is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him?” Because David was humbled by the greatness of God, he was confronted with his own sinfulness and fragility. And because He understood God’s greatness, he was in awe of God’s goodness–blown away that God thought of him, that God loved him. The more we grasp His greatness, the more we appreciate His goodness. The closer we are to the Lord, the more we see the vast difference between His holiness and our depravity, His ability and our weakness. And yet our hearts are melted as we also find that He loves us.
The heavens are the works of His fingers–His fingers! Not His whole being or even His hand. He simply finger painted the sunset, the beautiful sky, the stars and the moon that brighten the night. Yet He remembers man. When we think of people, we often think of them because we need them. But God never thinks of us because He needs us. He thinks of us because He has chosen to be loving and good to us. The God who can paint the entire sky with His finger does not need us for anything. The God who creatively spoke the world into existence does not need our input or advice. He is not deficient and in need of our help. He only thinks of us because He is good. He thinks of you because He wants to think of you, because He has chosen to be good to you. You are His creation, and He has set His affection toward you.
Just as Gasparro crafted the penny as his masterpiece, God crafted humanity. He has marked us as His own forever by His Spirit. We are His. Though we feel small in His presence, He thinks of us. And in His goodness, He sent His Son to rescue us.