I am not creative in the artistic sense, but I do like to have a go at song writing every now and again. Thankfully, I have a friend at church who is an artist, and recently wrote the following blog for our church. I hope it blesses and encourages you this week:
LIFE PAINTING
Whenever I'm creating a piece of art, producing the painting itself is only a small part of the process. 80% of my time, effort and thought goes into the planning and preparation: discussions with the customer, creating the concept, making and prepping the canvas, editing the reference photos, sketching the design. All this lays the crucial foundation for the final 20% - the painting.
People usually don't see the 80% process. They only see the finished piece, the part that moves the beholder, brings them meaning and joy. But without that preparation, there would be no painting.
The well-known Psalm 139:13-17 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!"
God is so invested in you - he finds the ultimate joy in painting your life with you, painting it into the masterpiece that you are becoming. Your 20%. And what wonders that 20% brings!
Now think: if God is so incredibly invested in your 20%, how much more so has he invested in the 80% it took to get you here? To bring you to himself? The design, the thought, the millions of people he orchestrated to get you here at this time, in this place, with those particular facial features, that specific personality. How much of himself did he pour into the 80% unseen preparation to make you, you?
And once that 80% is complete - the fearful and wonderful process in the secret place, the weaving together in the depths of the earth - here you are: the amazing, beautiful, incredible you, ready to paint your life with God and finish that wonderful 20%.
That sounds all well and good. But sometimes in the 20% journey, there are things that don't go to plan. Paint goes where it isn't supposed to. You try to rub out some markings and all it does is smudge across the piece and rip the paper. Things happen that are out of your control. Painting is hard. Life is hard. But at the end of it all - when finally the last stroke has been placed, when you and God sign your names in the bottom corner, and your piece is hung on the walls of heaven - you will see how those mistakes and hardships add to the beauty of it all. How they make the piece what it is. And without them, it wouldn't have the same impact that the many people beholding your life-painting needed for theirs.
Emma Hindle
