Pastor Tom put it something like this: Every time someone trusts Christ as his Lord and Savior, that person is quarried out of a life of sin and added to the spiritual house God is erecting. 
 
Which brings me to Renaissance artist Michelangelo.  According to historians he was very finicky about the marble he used to carve his statues.  So he would search a rock quarry for the perfect piece of brittle white stone. Legend has it that someone came upon Michelangelo chipping away with his chisel at a huge shapeless rock and asked him what he was doing. The famous sculptor replied, "I'm releasing the angel imprisoned in this marble."
 
Ever since the Fall of Man, human beings, like Michelangelo's angel, have been imprisoned in a chunk of marble, with no way to escape.  We're trapped in our sin nature and can't break free.  The good news is that the Greatest of all sculptors, Almighty God, has set to work on the cold hard slab of humanity.  A chip here, a chip there and, from time to time, He gouges out large chunks of stone!  "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus…" (Eph 2:10).  Jesus has come to set the captives free!
 
When I look at my fireplace I'm reminded of Peter's heartening words, "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house."  What Peter wants us to know is that God has chosen us to be a part of the spiritual house He's building! 
 
So the next time you feel worthless, useless, or you're suffering from guilt, or whatever, remind yourself that you are one of God's rocks! 
 
"For you created by inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:13)
  
Copyright by Marsha West, 05/01/05.  Revised 2006.  All rights reserved.