Over the course of my relatively short life thus far, and especially over the last year or so, I see a pattern in my relationship to my Creator.
I feel like my life is a microscopic tile in a giant mosaic masterpiece that is the picture of the whole world from the beginning of time to the end. It feels as though I am sitting watching the Great Artist paint this picture. I sit here playing my own little version of "Pictionary," as I endlessly guess what the completed work is intended to be.
Quite often, I start metaphorically (and possibly literally) jumping up and down saying, "Oh I get it! THAT'S what it's supposed to look like!" I then reach for the paint brush and begin filling in the picture according to my idea of what it is depicting.
However, my artistic abilities are clearly lacking and so soon enough, I relinquish control back to the Artist.
But as I continue to watch Him paint, I become ever indignant with the seemingly random and out-of-place brush strokes that do not fit whatever it is that I think He is painting or should be painting.
I thus start complaining, telling Him, "Why did you draw that line?! That messes it up! It's not supposed to be there! Where did that smudge come from?!"
But gently, over and over again, the Artist just keeps assuring me, "Trust me! Just wait and you will see what it will be if you will only be patient and stop interrupting me. I promise it will be beautiful! Just wait!"
Yet, at times that is hard to believe because it feels like all I can see is the drop-cloth...or at least that's all it seems to be. But then I am reminded that not only can I not see my entire picture, I most certainly cannot see the much bigger picture of history of which I am only a small part.
Yes, my little tile in the mosaic masterpiece is important, but its importance seems to be a minute detail in comparison with the rest of the whole. After all, if it gets a little messed up by my ignorant attempts to contribute, the Artist is surely good enough to tie in those "mis-strokes" and make them enrich the beauty of the whole. Not only that, but when I think about a mosaic, there is a lot of variety that can take place in each tile to still produce the final complete work. So why am I so afraid I might somehow mess it up by making a wrong decision? God is bigger than that!
But the very thing that makes a mosaic so amazing is the parts of which it is made up.
We each have something to offer.
That is the beauty of this life.
But Jesus wants to be the One painting our picture.
He is the only One who knows what color our tile is supposed to be.
It's when we give the paintbrush to Him and stop trying to interfere that our life is as it should be:
beautiful.
.
