Help Lord!  I Made a Mess!

July 26, 2023

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Can you picture a group of small children working with paint? Do you see the little girl who wants to use "all the colors," pours out more than her share of every color, and playfully creates a big, pitiful mess?  

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When she finally gets tired of painting and the teacher asks everyone to share their work, our girl realizes the other girls' pictures are prettier than hers.  Maybe they worked more slowly, planned more carefully, or were just lucky to have more talent, better materials, and fancier tools to work with than she had.  "Messy Girl" starts comparing herself with others, and she soon realizes she will not be "teacher's favorite" that day.

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You could say that's been my life.  I greedily took the biggest piece of paper and as much paint as I could get away with taking and spilled it here, there and everywhere, creating multiple marriages, multiple kids, and multiple careers.  

 

Using "all the colors" for me means I sloppily painted my "life art" with many wonderful years of marriage and career achievements (pinks, blues, and yellows), interrupted by several sad and pitiful, messy years of crisis and hurt, divorce, financial struggles, and promising careers cut short (blacks, browns, and grays).  Most of my mess could have been prevented by listening to wisdom and slowing down, waiting to be handed a little paint rather than grabbing the can and pouring it out on my paper. 

 

I can choose to live in regret and shame, condemning myself for the "should have's" and "wish I had's."  But hey, this painting project is not over!  Paintings can be fixed.  Oil paint, arguably the most permanent and beautiful medium, can be painted over, corrected, and perfected over time.  Even a gloomy background of black and gray, a hasty life painting slopped out in ignorance, pride, or fear, can be muted and blended to soften the edges, then overlaid with a light and colorful foreground scene to create mysterious beauty, a joy to the beholder.

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In fact, Vincent Van Gogh is said to have painted over his old paintings many times as he grew in his genius.  It's never too late to allow God to create in us His "beauty for ashes" (Isa. 61:3, KJV).  The "crying prophet" Jeremiah had these words of encouragement in the book of Lamentations:  "His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning" (3:22-23, KJV).  Each day we wake up is another chance to give our life story a happy ending, an ending of redemption, renewal, and hope for others who are coming down the same rough path we took.  The key is to slow down, listen to His voice in our hearts, and trust His wisdom.

 

As I wait for God's timing, having faith His plan for me is good, I can simply walk in thankfulness. Today I can say God gave me life.  Today I have good health.  Today I have a loving family and a business, a ministry, friends, a kitty cat, and a lovely apartment.  I can choose what I look at, and I choose to look at the good. 

 

And I am so grateful that careless and sloppy beginnings can be re-crafted into care-full and gorgeous endings.  Truly.

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Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh

An Avenue in Monet's Garden, Claude Monet

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