This picture hangs in my office. The artist? Me.
Before you jump to conclusions, let me clarify. I painted this picture during an afternoon breakout session at our women’s retreat several years ago, taught by Jennifer Fergus. I am not good at art, but I do enjoy stretching myself and doing something out of my comfort zone. Art doesn’t come naturally for me, so I have to work hard at it.
Jennifer carefully guided us step by step. But if you look at the top of the hill, in the middle, there is a light yellow spot in the blue sky. It was a mistake, or so I called it. I accidentally put too much white paint on the sky, and I immediately cried out, “Oh, Jennifer. I messed up this painting. I made a big mistake. It’s ruined.”
Her response was, “No. It’s not a mistake. Let’s work with it and make it something beautiful.” And we did, and it turned out to be a bright spot in the painting, a glimpse of the sun going down behind the hills.
Jennifer taught me a valuable lesson that day. She reminded me that we often look at things as mistakes, as something bad, of no value. We think we’ve messed something up to the point there’s no way to fix it. Yet, in God’s eyes, there are no mistakes. He can take the biggest mishap and make something good, something beautiful out of it.
That was a good reminder for me. God can and does take negative situations and uses them to make something good and beautiful from it. So now, every time I look at this picture on my wall at work, I am reminded that God takes my mistakes, my “oops,” and makes something good and meaningful out of it.
Thank You, Lord.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ESV)
