Verse of the Day for May 3

Paul has just said Not of works, and in the very next breath he says we were created unto good works. The order matters. Works do not make us his. Being his produces the works.

The word workmanship means something made with care, like a carved chair or a length of woven cloth. You are not a rough draft that God is still unsure about.

And the works themselves were prepared ahead of time. God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Walk is a quiet verb. Nobody walks dramatically. You put one foot down, then the other, on ground somebody else levelled first.

Verse eleven tells the Ephesians to remember where they came from. They were outsiders, called names by people who thought themselves closer to God. The quiet road was laid for people like that, not for people who had earned it.

So when the week feels flat, when you are queueing at the bank or sitting in traffic on the way to a job nobody praises, you are not off the path. You may be standing exactly where it was laid.

Quiet days are still days on a prepared path.

Being his workmanship means you do not have to prove you were worth making.