I am a mess.

 
    Have you ever had the privilege of observing little children paint?

    Puddles of paint form on the table, a streak of yellow-blue gets smeared across the child's forehead, and a splotch of red is later discovered on their neck during bath time.

     By the end of the painting session, the paper is all but demolished with the tremendous quantity of paints that have been slathered onto it. Sometimes a picture of sorts can be made out...perhaps that glop in the corner is Grandma's head, and that long line that gets kinda squiggly in the middle, yeah, that's you.

    Other times, the child takes every single beautiful color and mixes them together...the supposed effect being that one color of majestic beauty will appear when in all reality it turns into something brown and most unpalatable.

     Yet do you ever despise this mess? Can you look at that joyous display of creativity and see the smiles spilling over just like the water jar with numerous paintbrushes stuck into it every which way and not feel some sort of warmth at the simplicity and beauty in it all?

     Children's masterpieces are messy. And we accept that.


     The child brings the sopping wet paper to their parent and though a little dismay might be shown at the state of the child's clothing, the parent never says, "Oh my, that's a train wreck. Horrible job darling, I mean, you put effort into it, but it's just not Van Gogh." We don't expect da'Vinci from little children...we simply appreciate their trying and their progress. Even if that progress is simply that they painted you with four and a half arms inside of seven.

     There's no denying that the paintings are messy, but neither is there any doubt that we're pleased with it. It gives me so much joy just to see little children's brains creating; using their God-given capabilities to put their thoughts on paper.

     I think that it's not too presumptuous to think that this is how God views us as well.

     I am a mess. But is that bad? I don't think so. In fact, I think I would be worse off if I thought that I wasn't messy. I am messy. All my efforts are messy: my devotion to God is a sad picture colored outside the lines, my prayers are grace-filled messes, my attempts at loving are filled with glops and smears of brown-yickish paint.

     Yet in all my failings, God looks down and loves me and my mess. He loves me because Christ came and died for my messes, so that now when I make a mess it can be cleaned and framed by grace...turning my mess into a masterpiece of grace.

     Becoming a Christian doesn't mean that I can suddenly paint, perform, with all perfection. I am just as messy as before, yet Christ takes my stumbling efforts and smiles at them. It's not bad to put in some messy effort, what is bad is to think that because we won't be able to do it perfectly we shouldn't do it at all. If I thought to myself, "Agh, my prayers will never be the beautiful and reverent prayers that they should be, I'm not going try," that is when I take my messes and give up on them. That is not honoring to God.

     Our messes are so that we see our dependence on God. When we come to God holding up our drooping papers in our paint-covered hands and acknowledge that only He can make them beautiful, He smiles and is pleased with our faith to trust Him to make such disasters precious. Only by faith can you please God.

     Are you trusting that God will take your broken masterpieces and messy failures and turn them into beauties, or are you giving up because you can never do it "just right". Unfortunately, we'll never do it "just right" in this life, so to give up on that is to give up on God. God is more powerful than your splatterings and He is faithful.

     God transforms your mess, He transforms my mess, and together we make messes of human life and trust that by His powerful grace, He'll wipe our hands and faces and dry the brushes and spread the paint so that our paintings become Picassos.

     Don't give up on this art of life.

     It won't be perfect, and we're all bound to make messes, but we're also bound by grace and that grace will change us till we are in His presence when we will lay down our masterpieces, finally completed, and ready for the signature from the Master Artist of them all.

     Don't despise your mess, embrace it and allow God to transform it. Continue to create and paint this messy art of life.