EphesiansSample

The beginning of verse 10 is often translated: we are “his workmanship” (KJV, ESV), “God’s handiwork” (NIV), “God’s masterpiece” (NLT), “what he has made us” (NRSV). The Greek word is poiema, where we get our English word “poem”! We are saved through faith in Jesus, and then God wonderfully and mysteriously causes our lives to rhyme and become an expression of his grace. Even the messy parts are made beautiful.

N.T. Wright says:

“Then, in Ephesians 2:10, Paul says ‘we are God’s…’ - well, it’s a difficult word to translate. The Greek is poiēma, the word from which we get ‘poem.’ Well! We are God’s poem! Some of us, perhaps, may be sonnets; some of us are epics, some of us are limericks, some of us are haikus - but God is writing poetry in and through our lives” (p. 204, The Art of New Creation).