Creative juices splashed across the canvas with thoughtful intent. No brush stroke wasted, no colors misplaced. The artist stands in circumspect silence. Reflecting on the effort. Remembering the inspiration. Anticipating the reaction of the critics who will evaluate the magnitude of the work.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. ~ Ephesians 2:10
The Apostle Paul spoke on behalf of the ultimate evaluator. These words create worth and identity. God has entered the gallery, He has surveyed the work… His declaration is precise and indisputable. Masterpiece.
Bill Eakin, my friend and colleague, a longtime Youth For Christ family member, a man who poured his life into the lives of high school students well into his 80s was the consummate art critic on behalf of His Master. Bill had the amazing knack of looking at broken and misshapen and self-conscious and insecure and self-destructive and addicted and pain-filled people and declaring what God declared… “You are a masterpiece.”
A five-minute conversation with Bill and you felt like you were a gift that God had handcrafted for good. Bill lavished love. This was not cheap praise, but authentic grace-bathed adoration for what God had put together “in you,” “through you,” “because of you.”
Bill looked at people through the eyes of Jesus. He saw what others overlooked. He looked past the devastating impact of sin into the full light of mercy and grace. Restoration and redemption and transformation were in full view for Bill… because he had his eyes fixed on the finished work of Jesus.
Bill honored God by treating His masterpiece with dignity and delight.
On March 1st Bill stepped into the ultimate art gallery. Unfiltered beauty surrounded him. Indestructible and inconceivable.
And amidst the commendations… the “well done good and faithful servant,” I would guess that God took delight in the fact that Bill treated people like the masterpiece that God declared them to be.
From the least to the greatest. From the bottom to the top. From the cafeteria to the banquet hall. From the cashier at Walmart to the Mayor of Indianapolis… an irreplaceable masterpiece; a unique work of art; a gift; a treasure…
On Tuesday, we lost one of the finest art critics I have ever known. A man who knew a masterpiece when he saw it… and he saw thousands of them.
Ask anyone, ask everyone that knew Bill… he made each of us feel the power of God’s love; we felt valued through his warmth and laughter and embrace.
And now… in the vast cloud of witnesses… Bill is continuing what he began here… a life of wonder and awe and joy and celebration and delight and love…
Yes, Bill brought God’s Kingdom to earth… in every conversation, in every act of grace.
You are God’s masterpiece… Bill Eakin told me so.
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