So I painted this picture.

The online class instructor suggested that we take pictures of the piece as we painted.

That was excellent counsel.

Looking back at the progression of this picture, I was reminded of the Master’s hand.

I said in an earlier post, this grief art therapy is taking me to places I didn’t expect.

I seem to have epiphanies when I am being creative.

My life has been “blooming,” if you will, for many years (I won’t say how many decades.)

But let’s just say, I’m old enough to look back and see many brushstrokes of the very hand of God on my life.

I can even see now, in some places, where He laid down groundwork because he knew I would need that “base” along the way.

I didn’t always appreciate those “colors” at the time. They seemed like a wasted step. Why am I here? Why is this necessary?

But when I got further down the road in my journey, those steps and that foundation were exactly what I needed.

I could see it then.

To my shame, many times, only then was when I thanked God and praised him for leading me as he did.

And now?

Well in this season, my “canvas” is in that messy stage.

“The Ugly” as artists called it. “Stay with it, ya gotta get through the ugly.”

Yeh, that stage.

Scribbles everywhere. Mistakes even?

Yes, it seems so.

Something’s not right. The picture is all wrong.

How did my canvas get here to this ugly place?

But then, how was I so silly — no, arrogant — to think I could bypass this stage?

The Ugly.

But wait… the canvas on my own easel wasn’t done.

I went back to the painting over and over.

I worked on it some more.

And more.

It kept calling me back… (or did I pursue it …wanting it to be perfect and beautiful in the end?)

Once finished, I signed my name, and it was just as I wanted it to be.

I worked it all out.

What about God’s painting? That messy canvas of my life? And possibly yours?

That canvas may not look like we thought it would (or should), but it is exactly how God planned it to be.

All the sketches, base coats, even the scribbles — He’s working it out.

All of it.

The good, the bad and “the ugly.”

And by the time the painting is signed and delivered to our eternal home, it will be beautiful.

A masterpiece by the Master himself.

Perfect in every way.

Just as He planned it to be.