My daughter asked if we could celebrate her 29th birthday at a paint-your-own-art studio. Armed with more confidence than my non-artistic self should have, I selected a colorful abstract design of a woman wearing a colorful hat to paint on canvas.
The first step was tracing the lines from the picture through carbon paper onto the white canvas. Then, our instructor handed me a black marker so that I could go over the tracing lines and said, “This will help you not lose sight of the design while you’re painting.
Ready with my pallet of paint and step-by-step instructions, I dapped the brush in the first color and turned toward the canvas. Many sections needed to be painted, but I focused on one section at a time, careful to stay within the black lines. Each set of instructions directed me to paint in different areas of the canvas.
Satisfied that I could proceed, I encountered my next challenge: blending. This technique scared me because I was afraid to put two separate colors on the brush for fear of losing the distinctness of each color. Blending blurred the security of those black lines I’d carefully traced earlier. I had a terrible time blending!
My instructor picked up another brush and showed me with her expert hand how to blend a little of each color on the brush. As she blended, the black lines disappeared but were replaced by the glorious melding of this-and-that color, which was much more in harmony than the hard edges I wanted to hold onto for my comfort. She explained that blending was essential in painting because it creates interest and depth when two colors twist together without losing their individual qualities.
In life, we create a picture in our minds of what we think our lives should look like. We picture a specific type of job, house, or family. We fall in love with that picture because we believe it will make us happy. So we set about to create that picture on the canvas of our lives, carefully following the rules we think will produce our desired image.
Yet, life doesn’t stay within our neatly drawn lines. Jobs are lost, the doctor delivers bad news, till-death-do-us-part ends in divorce, or your teenagers tear apart your heart with their rebellion. Our human impulse is to use control to push everything and everyone back into place.
How do we hold the good and bad and trust God with both?
Thankfully, God specializes in blending!
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
Romans 8:28 NLT
I’ve heard Christians refer to this verse as a promise that God squares up everything sad and wrong in their lives. But this verse isn’t an individual promise; Romans 8:28 is a full-picture reflection of the goodness of God, who has seen the full scope of human sin, pain, loss, death, and grief, and He promises eternal healing and restoration for humanity in the end. It’s hard to see the complete big picture of God’s eternal plan because our lives are limited. One scriptural author observed this:
“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT
At one point, I became confused when I compared my painting to the sample because there were so many lines. The art instructor offered an important insight: “When you’re painting up close for a long time, it’s important to take a step back to see the entire picture.”
She was right! When I took a few steps back, I looked at the whole picture. I could see all the different colors popping with visual interest. The pinkish red contrasted with the lapis blue. I assumed that the titanium white didn’t have much to offer because I was painting on a white canvas, yet the brilliance of that color added a highlight effect that made the other colors pop.
Just like I had to step back from my canvas to see how the entire picture looked, Romans 8:28 assures us that God sees the complete picture of time and humanity from before the world began to our eternal forever.
When our picture of how we believe our lives should look starts to change, we can take comfort in God’s blending power. He can take what’s hard and heartbreaking, the broken and the beautiful, and somehow, in His way, God brings meaning, purpose, and even peace.
We don’t have to fear when our lives don’t look how we planned because our Master Creator knows how to take our messed up and messy lives and make a masterpiece.
Barb,
I love the analogy picture you “painted with words” to share Romans 8:28 so much that I shared it!
Sending you pre-Thanksgiving joy, Lisa Wilt
♥️
Hi Lisa, I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thank you for sharing this devotional and I pray that God uses these words to bless others.
Dear Barb…………What an interesting and for me, something that I needed on this day. My life is so messy and yesterday it got even worse. My husband has the violent type of dementia and tried to kill me. I had to have him evicted from our house of 40 years for my own safety. Here is the start of the most miserable 6 years of my life. I have 1 son and one 14 year old grandson who was only 12 when all this happened. I kept calling my son for support in convincing him that he was sick and needed to follow the Neurologists instructions. He would not help me and said it was just his father’s old age. I stayed with Jim for 3+ years and kept trying to make him understand that this was the only thing that could slow the progress of his type of dementia. Instead of stopping all drinking he increased the amount and every night in those 3+ years he abused me as due to what he was doing the doctors said that these were called “dementia rages” and the doctors, police and all my support groups that called me every day to see if I was all right said I had to stop worrying about Jim and start thinking about MY safety. On 4/20/2022, I finally realized that I did need to do something. I know God did something that night to make me believe all of the advice. For once, I was able to hold onto the phone while he was trying to rip it from my hand which now was bleeding profusely, but still the 911 call went through and Jim did not even know it so he kept hitting me and spitting etc., etc., but meanwhile the dispatcher was recording all of this, called the police who were there in 5 minutes. Now I knew I was in danger and took steps to get him evicted. All the doctors told me I already had stayed longer with him than anyone else they could think of and if in these 3+ years he would not do what I asked and my 52 year old son would not help me, I HAD to do something now. My son called me and told me I was a f’in liar and he no longer considered me his mother and he and his wife would never, ever let me see or talk to my grandson and with that, he hung up.I collapsed in a ball of tears and prayed over and over to no avail. I just started to wonder why God would have this happen. My faith is still unshakeable, but after 2 years now, everything is so much worse and my son and now ex-husband are doing everything they can so I do not get any of the considerable assets that I am entitled as we were married for 54 years and we both had very good jobs and invested wisely. I pray so much every day that I am sure that Jesus and the Lord must be tired of hearing from me, but your words today have given me hope that our Creator, as you wrote can take our mess and messy lives and turn them into a Masterpiece. I know God works in his own timeline, but I am 77 years old and pray that could he at least do something so that I can see my grandson and tell him how much I love him and that all they told him about me was not true. They has intercepted all of the cards I have sent Carter over these years destroyed them and threw them out before he got home from school. I am still heartbroken about this, but Jesus continues to give me strength to put 1 foot in front of the other and of course, my Holy Spirit is always with me. Otherwise I am alone. Thank you Barb for helping me today and I wish you a most wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family. Love to you and all of the incourage women who give us these devotions every day. It is the only way I stay grounded by reading them every day………………….Betsy Basile
Betsy, I’m glad that this devotional on how God blends the good and the bad was a blessing to you. God never tires of hearing from you and I’m glad that you keep praying, trusting and asking God for the strength to get through what you’re going through.
Barb thank you for everything you said in today Devotion you wrote about. It can be hard at times trusting God to blend the good with the bad. Especially in our lives. I know this too well. As I suffer seizures. Not everyday. But every so often. So can’t be left on my own as don’t know when I will take a seizure. As I get no warring with mine. They just happen out of the blue. So I go do my Dad’s Home Help for him he is 83. The carer takes him out for a while each day Monday to Friday day to do things together. To help him as his memory days it great days not so good. To keep him active as well. My Husband then worries about me. When I am left alone to tidy his house. I get on with doing it trusting the Lord. As Proverbs 3:5&6 says. “Trust the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding” How true that verse is. We are to trust God in everything and not lean on our own understanding thinking we not best. Trust God everything will be ok. Like you Barb with the painting that it be lovely when finished. With the help of the artist helping you. It reminds me of the way God helps us his followers to trust him. That like you and the painting. God will help us to walk straight for him and in right way for him. Not get sidetracked that we walk not in a straight way. Like you had to paint in straight way with the line. We have to do the same with God then with all the beautiful colours in paintings. God them make us into a beautiful picture of who he wants us to be for him with all the beautiful colours in us. That good to know. So God does blend the the good with the bad. Like me in my situation I can feel it bad when left on my own doing my Dad’s. But God is there projecting me and teaching me trust him when I feel the bad situation of doing my Dad’s that he can blend it together to make it good know God is projecting me no matter what when left on my own to do my Dad’s when he away out with his carer. Love Dawn Ferguson-Little Enniskillen Co.Fermanagh N.Ireland xx
Hi Dawn, thank you for sharing what this devotional meant to you, especially as you live in the difficulities of taking care of your father. You captured the main idea of the devotional beautifully. God sees you and loves you.
I hope what you have written is true… I am so angry and depressed, losing both faith and trust in God to blend the repeated financial and medical disasters in my life that have occurred over & over during the last 30+ years as I find myself in another financial disaster just on the brink of retirement. I don’t see how now all things can work for the good now. It will take a miracle.
Dearest heavenly Father be tangible to Margaret that she not feel defeated again. You are the giver of our faith & I storm Your throne to ask that You increase her faith through Your presence, Your provisions & Your peace. She can do nothing to increase her trust & faith in You BUT YOU can. In Your name, power, authority & affection I pray. Surround Margaret with Your Truth & reality of the 4 qualities I just prayed in. Amen.
Ruth, thank you for this prayer.
Margaret, I wish that I could hug you right now. I can hear the anguish in your words – of wanting to trust God, but the experiences of your life have left you feeling discouraged. God has not forgotten you, my friend. There is nothing too hard for God and I pray that today, whether you see this comment or not, I pray that you experience a fresh measure of love and grace from God.
Barb,
We have to trust that God sees & knows the complete picture of our lives. He put us on our path. When we stray or make different choices He simply smiles & steers us back. This verse says it all Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you & not for harm to give you a hope & a future.”
Blessings 🙂
Yes! Beth, thank you for adding Jeremiah 29:11 to the discussion.I had the verse in an earlier draft but took it out. I’m glad that you added it back in. Thank you for sharing your reflection.
Thank you, right message for this time
Praising God for that! I’m glad that this post was a blessing to you.