She came to Ohio from Florida with a
paintbrush packed in her bag.
The Lovely Women's Conference had only
just begun when Bonnie Joy Kelley was called on stage to the blank
canvas set on an easel that waited for her there. As the worship team
sang in the background, all eyes were on her as she dipped her brush
in the colors before her and then kissed the canvas repeatedly with
broad strokes that moved to the flow of the music. Mesmerized, we
watched, eager to see what the Spirit was saying to us through the
picture He was painting through her hands.
But our concentration on her activity
soon turned to confusion as the accumulating images and colors didn't
seem to merge into any recognizable form. For the life of me, I
couldn't make out what she was painting. I thought to myself, What
if she's just not feeling it tonight? What if she came all that way
only to have God go silent the minute she is standing in front of
500 women, all eager to see what she will produce? Is it really a
“gift” if she has to explain what she is drawing when she's done?
Suddenly the music seemed to be ending,
and she likewise put her paintbrush down on the palette beside her.
Then she took the canvas in her hands, turned it upside down, and set
it back on the easel.
A collective gasp went through the
room, for there before us was a picture of a woman lovely in every
detail, reaching up with her hands as if in praise or grateful prayer
to the God Who created her. Then came the applause and shouts of
praise and amazement at what we had just seen.
More than just a cool way to start off
a conference, there was a message in that moment that came to me
later. Each of us is likewise God's masterpiece, our lives a blank
canvas on which He is busily creating a work of beauty and wonder
that will deliver a message of His love to a watching world. But
sometimes in its creation we are hit with circumstances that we
simply don't understand, difficult situations that fill our hearts
with sorrow and our nights with tears. As Laura Story sings in
Blessings, those hard times can cause us to doubt God's
goodness and question His love. We wonder what on earth He is doing
and if He really has any better idea how to work out our problems
than we do ourselves.
Yet God pleads with us not to give up
on the process before the end of the song! While the music is still
playing, the Artist is still at work. And sometimes God has to turn
our lives completely upside down before the beauty in them becomes
apparent. It's then we understand that all the seemingly random brush
strokes that we so railed against at the time were full of tender
purpose and life-changing love... because the brush was held in the
Master's hand.
“And I am convinced
and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you
will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of
His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing
it to full completion in you.”
(Philippians 1:6 AMP)
