Masterpiece

 

            As a young person, I was fond of painting, not great at it but reasonable. I set it aside when I fell in love and got married. In these days of isolation I needed to find some other ways to occupy myself other than baking and decided to get back to my paint brushes.  To get used to handling the brushes again I got myself a paint by number,

            If you have never tried one of these let me give you a little insight. You receive a canvas with an image divided up into numbered areas and little pots of paint with corresponding numbers. Then you begin a sort of scavenger hunt trying to fill in all the spots of a particular number. Sounds simple enough, however some of these areas are so tiny they are easily overlooked. The tiny spots are important though, they give that little flourish that can draw the eye or round out an object.

            Why do I tell you about this? As I dove into this project, a great life analogy was revealed to me and I do love a good word picture. You see, up close it looks like splotches of paint with little rhyme or reason. It is only when you back away and see the whole picture that you see the necessity of each splotch. It came to me clearly that our lives are much like a painting (not a paint by number, God doesn’t need numbers) each event that occurs in our lives is another splotch of paint. Each one of us is a masterpiece of God’s creation, every day a brushstroke.

            Each life is a canvas, some are large, some small; just as some mortal lives are long and some are short, but all masterpieces. There are so many nuances in a painting, a tiny white dot becomes a sparkle in the character’s eye and the whole complexion of the image changes. There are also variations in color. Anyone who has selected a paint color to paint a room knows the multiple shades of any one color. I relate the subtle shade adjustments to our everyday lives, the routines of our lives, while similar they are different day to day. The shocks of a different color relate to the bigger events that happen; birth, education, marriage, parenthood, illness, grief, moving and so on. We don’t always care for the color shock, but they are necessary for the finished masterpiece.

            Perhaps, you are the tiny white dot on another person’s canvas or someone else put the sparkle in your eye. Ultimately, God handles the brush and places the dots and variations in color. I so love the imagery of God painting my life on this mortal canvas. Each color change adding to the character of my person or my life. I imagine Him stepping back from the canvas and contemplating each color and brushstroke lovingly. It warms my heart.

            We are currently experience a pandemic, a global event that is impacting every life. I would consider this a shock of color on my canvas. How will this add to my character? I really can’t say. What I can say is that the knowledge that God is in control has steadied me throughout this past year. The verse that continually comes to mind is from 2 Corinthians 12:9

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”  It doesn’t mean I don’t have my moments of anguish or pain, but it does give me the courage to face another day and the reassurance that God is holding the paintbrush. I don’t know how big the canvas of my life is, but I have confidence in Jesus my Savior.

 I look forward to the day when he will make the final stroke of the paintbrush, places his name on me and calls me home.