Painting

Erik asked for a painting easel for christmas. He had this desire to paint suddenly. Having only painted a watercolor and ink dragon as a teenager, we were curious to see what he would do. My parents bought him an easel acrylic painting set. He was thrilled. The next day he got it all out, played with his paints and in three hours created the masterpiece above! We couldn't believe it! The kids were in shock, "Dad did that!!??" "Wow!" "Hey, come look! Come see what Dad did!!" And my favorite, "Look! Look! DAD did THAT!!!!"

A few days later he painted this one. Simply beautiful. Just like the man I married. He is working on another one. A sunrise painting. Sometimes he doesn't like what he has painted, and he paints over it. This picture didn't originally have a row of trees in pink flowers by a lake. That area was painted over, added in. Acryllic painting can always be painted over. His new picture is like that, some parts have been painted over several times. It is, after all, only his third painting, and he is learning.

Life is like that. We have the story of our lives, like a painting. But every day we can make choices, choices that will affect how our painting will look at the end of the day. God is always working on us. The process of painting is not beautiful. It is messy. Paint gets everywhere and sometimes the picture looks nothing like what it will look like in the end. I am so glad I am not a finished product. Our paintings are not complete. But we can know, no matter what we look like now, He isn't finished. When we get discouraged by how ugly we think we are, He is still painting. He has the vision. And He has promised He will not stop until He has completed it. I am so glad we can trust His brush.