Food for Thought: Gnarled Trees and Unfinished Paintings

We Don't Judge What We Don't Know

The Artist picked up His brush

Tip down to canvas, quickly colored strokes.

Passerbys could not see

Anything but mish mashed color

And shrugged their shoulders.

It was nothing to them, but 

Everything to the Painter.

To their eyes, it was dull

Boring and lifeless.

They could not see potential,

Only an existential crisis.

Some laughed,

Others mocked,

Most criticized or suggested

Different colors, smaller strokes

Although the Artist never was corrected.

He continued on, with His masterpiece,

For that is what it was.

every painting starts with something 

And ends up something else...

None understood His plan,

The whys and why nots;

How in His hand,

The paint brush became a cross.

Anything coming through it

Had a destiny and dream,

The passerby only saw 

An unfinished painting.

How often

Do we

Do the same? 

    In speaking to my husband today, I was caught by a thought. When we don't have the vision for something, we often don't care about it or criticize it. While it may frustrate us when it is our dream or our project, how much more does it frustrate God? He has created us with purpose, individuals and completely different from one another. Yet when we don't understand or have vision of the potential that someone can be, we often judge and disdain them. 

      Of course, we would never want to admit that...  When someone talks about what they dream about doing, or who they dream of becoming, do we speak with words of encouragement? Or do we silently say, "I wonder if that will ever happen." Even if we do speak with words of encouragement, do we act on that encouragement? Stand up for the fallen and the ones no one will root for?

      Some of us love the underdog, myself included, but even I can't see past certain faults. I wonder if some do the same to me... I am arrested by this thought, that Jesus makes us and continues to make us. He has a vision, a gorgeous plan, but we can't even see it happening for ourselves let alone anyone else. Maybe that's the way to look at it. We are the painting, and  our own conscience, the passerby. We won't believe the vision that God has, His plan... Have faith and believe! 

      What sparked this post is a tree. I know, I know, a tree???? We were preparing for this years Halloween outreach that our church puts on. I was put in charge of building a tree. Again, a tree? Well, this tree needed to be 14 feet tall with branches coming out on all sides, looking gnarled and old.         

     Essentially, a project that nearly drove me insane. In working on it, I had a lot of help. But in the help, there were many times that I was disappointed in others' lack of vision. God used this to speak to me. To me, it was my life, my project. To others... It was only a tree. So, to myself, am I or other children of God only trees? When to Jesus, we are His project. Be encouraged, beloved. He has a vision for us. 

     (The finished work, thanks to so many

                      who helped!!)