The maker of the masterpiece

If I asked you to describe a masterpiece painting, the first one likely to come to mind is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” Hanging in the Louvre behind bulletproof glass in a controlled environment to preserve the pigment and the canvas, the Mona Lisa is well protected. 

What makes the Mona Lisa a masterpiece? It’s certainly not the subject matter. There have been millions of portraits of beautiful women painted throughout the centuries that would never be considered masterpieces. Did da Vinci have some secret paint or brushes no other artists knew existed? Actually, the material available to every art student today is much more advanced than what was available to da Vinci and his peers. The Mona Lisa is a masterpiece because of da Vinci’s extraordinary skill and intellect.

With that in mind, it may be hard to describe yourself as a masterpiece. It somehow feels vain, arrogant, and even haughty to look at yourself that way. Maybe the opposite of self-pride is the problem. You don’t believe you’re beautiful enough on the inside to possibly be considered a work of art. You know who you are and what you’ve done. You know the ugliness of it, to the point it even defines you.

But here’s the key. It’s not about your extraordinary skill, intellect, or lack of both. Nothing can change the fact that you’re already created as a masterpiece. Nothing you think or do can undo that truth. Why? You’re not the creator of the masterpiece to begin with. You’re not the artist. 

God is.

You are a masterpiece—not because you’re a da Vinci who has painted every brush stroke of your life perfectly, or because every choice you’ve made was the right color for your life’s canvas. You are a masterpiece—not because you stood before your life’s canvas at a young age and created a perfect composition that would fulfill your every dream, hope and wish. 

You are a masterpiece because God, as the artist, created you as His masterpiece.