Painting a Poor Copy

Lately I've been contemplating the awesome creative power of God through my own limitations.  When God said, "Let there be light," there was light.  When he said, "This is my body," it became his body.  When I said, "That's a cloud," no one - least of all me - was convinced it was a cloud.

Let me explain.  Through a long story for another time, a very nice set of paint has been sitting in my house for years.  I decided it might be fun to try to do something with that paint, something other than collecting dust.  I bought a canvas.  I stared at it for weeks.

It took a long time to think of something I might be able to paint since sometimes even my stick people aren't recognizable.  I settled on Jesus calming the sea.  If I set the boat in the distance, it wouldn't need a lot of detail.  Surely I could paint sky and sea.  All I needed was the right shade of blue.  And then another right shade of blue for the sea.  I knew I was in over my head when I found myself wanting to paint everything blue and call it a picture.

I jumped in anyway.  My children helped with tons of critiques.  When I painted a lovely blue over the top half of the canvas, I was told that it should be both darker and lighter and cover more and less of the canvas.  I agreed with all of them.  My sky is not nearly as perfect as God's.

There were as many issues with my sea. Let's not talk about my boat.

Months later, the clouds are still reminding me that God does creation like no one else, and I smile each time I try to improve my painting. I wanted more clouds on one side, the stormy side.  They were too fluffy so I painted over them with a big gray blob.  I can't imagine God's clouds looking like that.  I'm happy I can't imagine that. 

I tried to add some color variation.  I tried to add some texture.  I tried to undo some of my changes.  I'm having fun trying to make something pretty.  Every time I get out the paint, one of the kids says, "You're only making it worse," or "Quit while you're ahead, Mom." I laugh and keep trying because I know I’m helping them appreciate a God who creates things I cannot even imitate.