Created, Not Copied

By: Lisa Allen, Publication Specialist, Cross & Crown

I love to paint. It’s relaxing to sit in front of a blank canvas and imagine what I want to see filling up the white space. I’m not thinking about anything else. No thought at all about laundry, grocery shopping, the house in need of pressure washing, finances, or any of life’s many dramas. I’m focused on painting. In those moments I can experiment with mixing paints and attempting to paint something worth admiring. It is very therapeutic.

This past week I was working at the easel, and I was not even close to getting that relaxing feeling that painting usuallybrings. I was frustrated. You see I found a painting that inspired me. I was in a store, and a painting caught my attention, so I snapped a picture with my iPhone. I drew the outline and filled the canvas with colors and details. I was struggling to capture the look that I kept eyeing on my photo on my phone. Sitting there holding the phone beside the easel and making the comparison, I kept falling short of achieving my goal. Although it wasn’t bad, it was not exactly what I wanted in comparison to the photo I was using as my guide.

That night I brought the canvas into the living room and while I analyzed it and compared it to the inspirational painting, I was just frustrated even more. So, I adjusted it the next night. Again, the goal I had in mind, you may have guessed by now – more of the same. Frustration yet again.

The next morning, I sat in my chair with morning coffee and that canvas in front of me. At that moment God spoke to me through that painting. It was if I knew immediately, I was not allowing God to inspire me. I was relying on what inspired someone else. When I examined the photo on my phone a bit closer, it was clearly a mass reproduction of a computer-generated image, not an original painting. At that moment, my frustration took an exit. I knew I should just sit and paint what inspires me.

How often is life like that painting? We’re comparing our talents or lack of with others, competing for position, and sometimes living off inspiration generated by someone else. We live up to a bar someone else set for us instead of reaching for what God created us for. We are following a false sense of something in masses.

When we take our eyes off God, we lose our purpose. When we take our hearts to others for inspiration instead of God, we lose our intimate relationship with God. I imagine God as the painter of our lives, choosing for us specifically what He desires to bring out in each of us. He knows what the kingdom needs. He’s not making carbon copies or prototypes, mass reproductions or knock offs. He’s creating individuality to serve where He needs you. You’re an original.

My painting may not turn out as I expected, and that’s okay. In fact, I think it’s more than okay. It’s going to be an original work of art just like you and me.

Ephesians 2: 10 NLT   For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.