Our life, like any great masterpiece, begins on a clean canvas.
- The brush is our spirit and body; it is our very soul.
- The paint is our life, with all its many colours and shades.
- The water is Jesus Christ.
- The Artist is God Almighty.
The components of life and the rules surrounding them:
- The paint will run dry, and we will die.
- Paint not removed damages the brush because it hardens the bristles.
- If not washed often, the brush will cease to paint the colours intended as colours start to mix. Unrestrained life corrupts.
- The water is soothing and always available for use. There is no chance of a successful painting without it. It is needed to clean and protect the brush from the paint (life). The water is made dirty by our lives so that we might be cleansed.
- But the Artist does a peculiar thing and asks with each stroke of the brush, “Brush what next?” Should I wash you? Should I choose a colour and continue?
How simple is it to paint the picture God intended?
The way I see it is to choose wash, paint, wash, paint, wash. For this is not as complicated as we would have it seem, God said to seek His will and not our own, for surely I (the brush) do not know the picture being painted and without washing often the canvas will simple be a smudged, smutty colour of entangled colours. If the colours are mixed, how will I be able to look at a nearly completed picture and see the Artist’s intended vision? We may not have control over our life (the picture being painted), but we do have control over its value, and if it becomes the masterpiece the Artist intended it to be, for Himself and those who will view it.
Our fragile souls and the abuse of life.
How easy is it for the brush to be corrupted by the paint? To be hardened till thrashing and chastening is required? Why is it that our hearts desire bright colours and the intoxicating aromas of life?
Clearly, it is God’s plan for us to find our fulfilment in His intent for our lives. However, we make one incredibly sufficient mistake in that we say and mean when we say “This is my life!”.
But it is clearly not our life alone; God is the Artist, He decides what is painted and what colours are used, all we decide is what we dip/get ourselves into along the way.
We may not be controlling what life is meant to be, but our choices determine the beauty of our life. Ultimately, God, the Painter decides when our painting is complete.
What’s on your canvas? Can you tell?