Growing up, I had this five-foot long white board that leaned against the foot of my bed. Every night before Dad tucked us kids in, we all gathered in my room for "drawing time."
We'd pick a character for Dad to then draw on the board (it was usually one from a Disney movie). Some of my all-time favorites were Raja the tiger from "Aladdin", Flounder the fish from "Little Mermaid", and Terk the monkey from "Tarzan."
I was always amazed at how fast and accurately he drew any and every character we'd suggest. Understand that my dad is an IT guy, so his genes do not necessarily code for artistic abilities. With that being said, the pictures were never perfect but they were close enough that you could make out his intended subject.
Invariably, the character's head would be too big or a hand, too small. If that wasn't the case, Dad would run out of room on the board and consequently body parts would be missing. So, we'd all laugh and call it a night. In the rare case that Dad felt he needed to start the drawing over again, the second picture always looked differently from the first and still nothing completely like the original illustration.
I would imagine that the Disney animators spend a great deal of time outlining a character in their head before they put any ink to paper.
Likewise, the Bible tells us that God designed every component of our being and already had an image of us in His mind before we were brought to life. He is aware of our every detail, shade and shape. Psalm 139 talks about God "knitting us together in our mother's womb" and simply knowing His creation before the actual 'creating' part.
Were we to take the marker into our own hands and draw ourselves, the image (if we're lucky) may be good enough that others are able to identify it as "us." But no matter how hard we try, our picture cannot even begin to compare to God's original portrait. And just think, no two of His drawings are alike!
By humbling ourselves and giving the marker over to God, we accept the truth that anything we attempt to draw is merely a sloppy, flawed copy of His perfect picture. We need to live our lives trusting the Artist and His vision.
Consider this: You are a living, breathing God-designed masterpiece. The world is His art gallery, and none of His portraits are cheap. In fact, God paid the ultimate price with His son Jesus, who died a most painful death on a cross.
The picture He drew of you hangs on the front door of His heart. And it will never, ever be erased.
-Rachel
We'd pick a character for Dad to then draw on the board (it was usually one from a Disney movie). Some of my all-time favorites were Raja the tiger from "Aladdin", Flounder the fish from "Little Mermaid", and Terk the monkey from "Tarzan."
I was always amazed at how fast and accurately he drew any and every character we'd suggest. Understand that my dad is an IT guy, so his genes do not necessarily code for artistic abilities. With that being said, the pictures were never perfect but they were close enough that you could make out his intended subject.
Invariably, the character's head would be too big or a hand, too small. If that wasn't the case, Dad would run out of room on the board and consequently body parts would be missing. So, we'd all laugh and call it a night. In the rare case that Dad felt he needed to start the drawing over again, the second picture always looked differently from the first and still nothing completely like the original illustration.
I would imagine that the Disney animators spend a great deal of time outlining a character in their head before they put any ink to paper.
Likewise, the Bible tells us that God designed every component of our being and already had an image of us in His mind before we were brought to life. He is aware of our every detail, shade and shape. Psalm 139 talks about God "knitting us together in our mother's womb" and simply knowing His creation before the actual 'creating' part.
Were we to take the marker into our own hands and draw ourselves, the image (if we're lucky) may be good enough that others are able to identify it as "us." But no matter how hard we try, our picture cannot even begin to compare to God's original portrait. And just think, no two of His drawings are alike!
By humbling ourselves and giving the marker over to God, we accept the truth that anything we attempt to draw is merely a sloppy, flawed copy of His perfect picture. We need to live our lives trusting the Artist and His vision.
Consider this: You are a living, breathing God-designed masterpiece. The world is His art gallery, and none of His portraits are cheap. In fact, God paid the ultimate price with His son Jesus, who died a most painful death on a cross.
The picture He drew of you hangs on the front door of His heart. And it will never, ever be erased.
-Rachel
It is an awesome reminder that God "knew" us before He started "knitting us together". Sometimes we fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others, thinking "why can't I be like that?".
ReplyDeleteWhether it be how we look, how we think, things that happen to us, diseases we may contract, it is comforting to know that God has a purpose in everything and that we may never understand that until the day we see Him face to face.
It will be SO cool when we get there and 1 Cor. 13:12 becomes real to us:
"Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely."
THAT makes me excited!