The painter Peter Paul Rubens is recognized even today as a genius. His work has been so influential that we sometimes talk about the “Rubinesque” figure.

Rubens was also quite a businessman. Unlike many other immortal artists, Rubens was fortunate enough to taste the fruits of success while he was still alive. He was highly commissioned for his work.

In fact he was so highly compensated that he opened what one writer called a painting factory. He hired a school of pupils, and started an assembly line! He made the initial drawings and the pupils filled them in. Then with a few master strokes, he completed the paintings. 

Now consider who we are. We are students in Christ’s school. We are not masters. We simply fill in the sketches he has already begun. When we have done all we can, he provides finishing touches to produce a masterpiece.  

To understand our role in such a way relieves us of the burden of being sufficient in our own abilities to do what he has called us to do. We are his students, his servants, his apprentices. Jesus is the Master. 

How cool it is that the same God who created mountains and oceans and galaxies, thought of YOU, and felt the world needed one of YOU too!

Thanks to King Duncan for his thoughts.

My Commentary:

Peter Paul Rubens is remembered as a master because he understood mastery. He knew where genius truly resided. His paintings did not emerge from frantic self-sufficiency but from a disciplined trust in process.

 He sketched the vision, entrusted much of the labor to his students, and then — at precisely the right moment – he added the strokes only a master could make.

That image tells us something essential about the spiritual life.

So many of us live as though we are expected to be both apprentice and master at the same time. We exhaust ourselves trying to finish what we were never meant to complete alone. We mistake faithfulness for perfection and effort for control. And when we fall short, we assume the canvas has been ruined.

But in Christ’s school, we are not the masters. We are learners. We are apprentices filling in the lines already drawn by love. Our task is not to create ourselves from nothing, but to respond — to show up, to practice, to trust.

Jesus does not hand us a blank canvas and demand brilliance. He gives us a sketch and invites faithfulness. And when we have done all we can, He does what only the Master can do — bringing coherence where we see fragments, beauty where we see flaws, meaning where we see mistakes.

Understanding this frees us from the crushing burden of self-sufficiency. It reminds us that calling does not depend on our adequacy, but on His faithfulness.

And perhaps the most astonishing truth of all is this: the God who shaped galaxies and oceans also chose to include you in His design. Not as an afterthought. Not as a copy. But as a necessary part of the masterpiece still being made.

What has Jesus sketched for YOU in YOUR life along with his finishing touches?

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO MEET THE REAL JESUS AND TO LEAVE INDIFFERENT!

Please listen to my Podcast and invite others to do so.