Wednesday, November 5, 2008

ARTIST

Psalm 139:14—I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Delnora sits before her canvas. Her eyes walk across the wild flowers that carpet the valley before her. They climb up the dark green firs higher and higher until only the magnificent face of a snow-capped mountain is left to kiss the clear blue sky. She gulps the fresh air and sighs--the exhalation of ecstasy an artist feels in the presence of grandeur. She mixes assorted paints to find the perfect color to match what she views. The painting begins . . .

High in the home we have not yet lived, a Master Artist creates from His divine knowledge another life. He draws unique fingerprints and invents a new voice. He knows every baby born from a man-woman joining. "For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16).

The One Who drew the delicate brilliant colors across tropical fish; focused eagle eyes to see a rabbit a mile away; wrapped the alligator in armor; scented the rose and honeysuckle; honored a gray cliff with a singing waterfall; lent voice to a cheerful canary; made apatetic fur to hide the leopard; coated the lamb in flocculent attire; gave simple cane the sweetness of sugar and hid milk in coconuts; never makes mistakes.

The Master Artist has no discard pile. Each life He forms is precious. We judge by the exterior and applaud the fittest. He sees what is inside and loves what is honest. Whether you get up bursting with energy or lie still in depression the truth still remains. Jesus lovingly made you. You are not the mistake of two misguided souls or the work of parents who carefully planned for your arrival. You are God’s child, meant to be His own. He calls You to Him as you are. Don’t let the roar of a sin-soaked earth fool you. May you be the prize He intended, one angels celebrate, the lover of the Artist.

Inspiration

The joy of an artist is not in the fame that his pictures bring him, but that his work is the creation of his personality. The work of Jesus is the creation of saints; He can take the worst, the most misshapen material, and make a saint.—Oswald Chambers in Bringing Sons Into Glory