Grace Breaking Through

I’d never been to a painting party. My dear friend invited me and we had a lovely time. Here is my finished product:

I didn’t intend for it to end up looking like Captain America’s shield (as Racer so joyously pointed out), but considering the story of the art, I think a shield is fitting!

We started with a blank canvas that had a penciled circle drawn on it. Then, as we heard the story of how a pearl is made, we wrote in the circle the various negative words and feelings we had about ourselves. Colbie Caillat’s “Try” played and women wrote. My words were: tired, frustrated, disappointed, hurt (and one other I can’t remember now).

Then, we heard a message of grace and as contemporary music played, we used our finger tip to paint in the circle. To cover over the words. At first, some of the words still could be seen. It took a few layers of paint, of beautiful color, to cover over those words.

Sometimes, it’s that way in life isn’t it? It takes different layers of healing to eradicate the wounds in our soul. I imagine that most of us are walking around with the words peeking though in some places. And some of us haven’t taken on any layer of healing grace and our words are stark against the beauty of the image of God in which we are created.

But it doesn’t have to stay that way. You see, love covers over a multitude of sins. God’s grace breaks through the tired, the frustration, the disappointment, the hurt in our lives.

And just like the paintings from last night, grace looks different on each of us. Grace looks different on me than it does on you. Grace looks different on us because the words underneath that grace are different for each of us.

So today, I choose to look at people and see where grace is breaking through. Yes, I may still see the remnants of those words written, but I will focus on the grace. I choose to see where God is at work, loving them, covering over their sins and creating something beautiful just for them.

I will not compare.

And I will carry my new shield of faith with me.