A Paint-By-Number Life

At the beginning of summer my grandson and I visited a local hobby store to stock up on summer entertainment projects. Hoping to avoid those, I’m bored and there’s nothing to do blues, we bought a picture etching project and a paint-by-number canvas painting. Once the projects were out of the packages at home though, we were both shaking our heads with that “Yeesh – those look really hard,” wide-eyed stare.

In spite of the difficult challenge of the paint-by-number task, I bought a picture project for myself — because in spite of the difficulty – painting by numbers looked like a fun project. Reality quickly set in and after several weeks there is little danger that I will set the art world on fire with my superior artistic skills. It’s been slow going as some of the spaces on these canvas pictures are so unbelievably small that directing a brush into the tiny marked spaces seems to be a near impossibility. My brush strokes lack finesse in the tight spaces and my hand is anything but steady. My picture is looking a little amateurish and somewhat messy.

In some ways a paint-by-number picture reminds me of how life can sometimes be both complicated and messy. Sure, there are times when life runs smoothly and things are ordered as we plan and hope for – just like a finished painting. But that is not always the case.

What do we do when life throws us an unexpected challenge that doesn’t fit neatly into our paint-by-number plans for life? Trials like unemployment, divorce or a serious debilitating illness rarely fit into our plans. Sometimes those unexpected difficulties can feel just as overwhelming to us as when we’re trying to apply paint in those teeny, tiny impossible to deal with spaces on our painting. One problem can bleed over into other areas of our life making us feel as though we’ve lost sight of how our picture-perfect life is supposed to look.

When trials or tragedy strike we need to step back and look at the bigger picture. If we have made Jesus lord of our lives, we need to trust that His artist’s eye has already seen our life from beginning to end and He knows exactly what our finished picture-perfect life will look like. The trials that we think complicate and mess up our life are oftentimes the defining moments that shape us into the beautiful creation that Jesus had planned for us all along.

Rather than trying to make our lives fit into a perfect paint-by-number existence, we need to give Jesus the control of our lives. When we allow Him to take creative liberties with us, He crafts us with the artistry of mercy, grace and forgiveness so that we can transform from being just ordinary and become extraordinary followers of Christ. Serving Jesus means He will sculpt, mold and color our lives with His plans for us so that ultimately the messiness — the trials — and the challenges will shape us into God’s beautiful masterpiece.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

Blessings in Christ,
Kathy K.

Author: Kathy Kurlin

I am a wife, mother, grandmother and published author of three books. My true passion is to share the Gospel through the written word. I may not be a Pulitzer Prize winning author, but God tells us to be faithful with "little things," ... so at my Lord's pleasure ... I use my "little writing gift" to write for Him. View all posts by Kathy Kurlin