Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Coming Together
11:52 PM
When I get to the gift market, it doesn't take too many showroom stops before I start picking up on the latest trends in the colors, patterns, styles, dƩcor, novelties, and gadgets that are arriving on the scene for the coming year. There were those years when everything I saw had a bird on it. There was the pink and gold trend. There was the owl, then the unicorn, llama, sloth, flamingo, and cactus- in that order. There have been many years of the farmhouse-themed dƩcor with chickens, eggs, wind vanes, and rusty pots galore- that one is still out there but, hopefully, in its golden years. The crazy socks, adult coloring books, fidget spinners, and coiled hair ties have each had their time as new kid on the block. Last year, squishy toys were all the rage. This year, animal prints seem really big, and, over and over again, I saw something that grabbed this soon-to-be empty nester's attention. They were really nice adult paint by number kits.
Now, I didn't order any for the stores, but I came home and decided I'd order one for myself and see how I liked it. Some evenings, I've found myself with more time on my hands than I'm used to with my children being grown and all. I've gotten into a couple of shows on Hulu. I have a nightly appointment with the treadmill. I try to blog once a week. And I've taken up reading again as it's been a long time since I've had time to read books with much consistency. So, in the interest of finding a new pastime or two to mix up this evening lineup, I ordered myself one of those paint by number sets like I'd seen.
I chose a beautiful fall scene. You know how I feel about that most glorious season and, as involved as the picture looked, I thought maybe I could have it done by late fall. The image portraying the glorious colors of autumn and the promise of cooler weather seemed to be an inspirational goal worth working towards. Well, it came in and did not disappoint. It was printed on a large 16"x20 piece of canvas and included everything I'd need to create the masterpiece. My creative juices don't lend themselves to free-handed painting or drawing, so this preprinted art route would be the only way I would ever be able to produce anything that wouldn't look like a kid's Bible school craft.
So, a couple of weeks ago, not sure how I was going to like this whole painting thing, I sat down with my water cup, stretched out the canvas, and pulled out all the supplies. I put the image of what the finished product should look like off to the side for inspiration. The directions suggested starting with color #1 and painting all the colors in order. The shades get darker as the numbers get higher and progressing from light to dark would apparently help with blending, so I obliged.
I got out the smallest brush, opened my first paint color, #1, and looked the canvas over for all the spaces marked with the corresponding number. It was a very light color, which I presumed would ultimately only serve as the background for part of the picture. What a bore. The faint color was barely a contrast with the ivory colored canvas, but I filled them all in with the pale hue and went back to recheck the vast sea of numbered shapes for any I'd missed. There wasn't that much to fill in for that first subtle color, but I was sure to go over them twice, so to give more coverage to the numbers underneath. An added challenge with which Rembrandt and Picasso never had to contend.
I cleaned my brush and opened paint #2. It was a little darker and gave me a little more instant satisfaction given its more visible results. I'd find a cluster of 2's down near the bottom and then a few clusters to the side of that and then there was this one little 2 in the very top right corner of the picture. It was up there all by itself among a lot of darker colors that would have to come along later. As an unskilled artist, I found it improbable that the little isolated smattering of the color that I was laboring with at that moment could possibly ever tie into the work that would be done at a later time, but, being so very unaccomplished in the art, I was careful to rely on the instructions of the professionals and not chart my own course. Bob Ross, I am not, and I knew there would be nothing happy about the trees if I tried to depict them in my own way.
As the colors progressed to #3, I opened it up and didn't consider it to be very pretty. Kind of ugly, really. I'm pretty sure color #3 could only be replicated in nature within a baby's diaper. And, while some of the shapes numbered with 3 were easily filled in with their smooth edges and predictable forms, others were quite arduous to complete. They were long and meandering and full of narrow, tight spots that were hard to navigate with a brush. Some were so involved that I'd think I'd never get them behind me. But, trusting it would all come together with breathtaking results, I kept my head down and forged ahead in my work even when I had doubts and questions along the way. After all, who was I to second guess the good people down at the paint by number factory?
Now, I didn't order any for the stores, but I came home and decided I'd order one for myself and see how I liked it. Some evenings, I've found myself with more time on my hands than I'm used to with my children being grown and all. I've gotten into a couple of shows on Hulu. I have a nightly appointment with the treadmill. I try to blog once a week. And I've taken up reading again as it's been a long time since I've had time to read books with much consistency. So, in the interest of finding a new pastime or two to mix up this evening lineup, I ordered myself one of those paint by number sets like I'd seen.
I chose a beautiful fall scene. You know how I feel about that most glorious season and, as involved as the picture looked, I thought maybe I could have it done by late fall. The image portraying the glorious colors of autumn and the promise of cooler weather seemed to be an inspirational goal worth working towards. Well, it came in and did not disappoint. It was printed on a large 16"x20 piece of canvas and included everything I'd need to create the masterpiece. My creative juices don't lend themselves to free-handed painting or drawing, so this preprinted art route would be the only way I would ever be able to produce anything that wouldn't look like a kid's Bible school craft.
So, a couple of weeks ago, not sure how I was going to like this whole painting thing, I sat down with my water cup, stretched out the canvas, and pulled out all the supplies. I put the image of what the finished product should look like off to the side for inspiration. The directions suggested starting with color #1 and painting all the colors in order. The shades get darker as the numbers get higher and progressing from light to dark would apparently help with blending, so I obliged.
I got out the smallest brush, opened my first paint color, #1, and looked the canvas over for all the spaces marked with the corresponding number. It was a very light color, which I presumed would ultimately only serve as the background for part of the picture. What a bore. The faint color was barely a contrast with the ivory colored canvas, but I filled them all in with the pale hue and went back to recheck the vast sea of numbered shapes for any I'd missed. There wasn't that much to fill in for that first subtle color, but I was sure to go over them twice, so to give more coverage to the numbers underneath. An added challenge with which Rembrandt and Picasso never had to contend.
I cleaned my brush and opened paint #2. It was a little darker and gave me a little more instant satisfaction given its more visible results. I'd find a cluster of 2's down near the bottom and then a few clusters to the side of that and then there was this one little 2 in the very top right corner of the picture. It was up there all by itself among a lot of darker colors that would have to come along later. As an unskilled artist, I found it improbable that the little isolated smattering of the color that I was laboring with at that moment could possibly ever tie into the work that would be done at a later time, but, being so very unaccomplished in the art, I was careful to rely on the instructions of the professionals and not chart my own course. Bob Ross, I am not, and I knew there would be nothing happy about the trees if I tried to depict them in my own way.
As the colors progressed to #3, I opened it up and didn't consider it to be very pretty. Kind of ugly, really. I'm pretty sure color #3 could only be replicated in nature within a baby's diaper. And, while some of the shapes numbered with 3 were easily filled in with their smooth edges and predictable forms, others were quite arduous to complete. They were long and meandering and full of narrow, tight spots that were hard to navigate with a brush. Some were so involved that I'd think I'd never get them behind me. But, trusting it would all come together with breathtaking results, I kept my head down and forged ahead in my work even when I had doubts and questions along the way. After all, who was I to second guess the good people down at the paint by number factory?
After the first couple of numbers, I started to see that working on one color for two or three days worked out to be about the right amount of time that I wanted to devote to the artwork, each day. I mean, even the greats had to pace themselves. A masterpiece takes time, you understand. I didn't want to work myself up into a frenzy and cut off an ear or anything. As the numbers have gone higher, though, I've started to get in the groove and find the activity strangely relaxing and, sometimes, find it hard to settle on a stopping place. The more I've noticed the picture taking shape, the more excited and fascinated I've gotten with each new step, which is likely precisely how Monet, Cezanne, and Michelangelo must've felt when they worked on their own unnumbered showpieces.
I'm now on color #8 of the 23 colors and it's coming along nicely. I certainly don't intend to hang it anywhere when I'm done, but I'm receiving much satisfaction in watching the colors build onto one another and the scene start to come alive. I feel cooler just looking at it.
Of course, I couldn't pass up thinking about how life is a lot like this paint by number. Like paint color 1, sometimes, we're down here working our hearts out on something and we can barely tell the difference it's making. Honestly, we wonder what's the point. Is it really even worth the effort we're investing? No one seems to notice the subtle change it's making. Would anybody even care if we just didn't fill in our part? We can look around, at times, and our results may seem far less impressive than some of those more eye-catching outcomes we see. But, we keep going and keep being faithful with our instructions and our assignments and, in the end, we'll eventually see what an important part it all played in creating the backdrop for God's big plan.
"The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Lord, our faithful love endures forever, do not abandon the work of your hands." Psalm 138:8
Like color 2, there may be something from our past that we consider to be totally disconnected from where we are and what we're doing now, but, in time, God might just fill in all the blanks and bring it back into the scope of His work. Maybe it's a lesson we learned, a relationship that formed, a skill we developed, or an experience we had in the past that will eventually play a pivotal role in the overall canvas of our lives or someone else's. Maybe we won't even realize it until life has had time to fill in all the empty spaces around it and bring out the beauty and reason for the experience that happened along the way. Even the most isolated happenings that've been hanging out there for so long with no obvious purpose, God can bring them into the picture at the most perfect time, for the most perfect purpose, and with the most perfect result.
"God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won't stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns." Philippians 1:6
Like color 3, even parts of our lives that we see as ugly or painful have a place and a reason in the finished work. Standing on their own, there may portions that are hard to look at or are simply distractions for us. Maybe when we look at our life stories, those spots are all we can see jumping off the page at us. Everyone has pieces of life that are heavy, wearing, and difficult, but God can do His work around those and bring out the beautiful color even from those painful parts. He didn't promise that everything in our lives would be good, but that He could take even life's most heartbreaking segments and create something good out of them for us. I can think of a lot of things that aren't good. Cancer. Death. Infertility. Rejection. Disability. Betrayal. We can all count on life to deal us some hurtful strokes, but even the ugliest hues and most challenging paths our brushes take can be used for ultimate beauty, because our Artist knows what He's doing.
"And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans." Romans 8:28
Just like you wouldn't want to see the result of my attempt at painting a picture without a detailed plan and step by step guidance from someone, who knows what they're doing, it wouldn't be any prettier if I was determined to sketch out my own life. I'm certainly even less capable to do that. My futile attempts to build on experiences, connect needs with resources, shade the good in with the bad, blend the past in with the present and bring it all together to be fruitful, well, my final work would be not unlike the paintings of that famous gorilla artist named Koko.
As many times as it's happened in my life, I never fail to be amazed at how God can work out those tiny details. Those chance meetings. Those lighting bolt thoughts of someone that hit us out of nowhere. Those doors that swing open at just the right moment. It's astounding how He can meld the paths of people together for a specific time and purpose. How He can use one person as a catalyst to bring out something buried and beautiful in another person. How He can take something meant to harm and use it to heal. Only He could blend experiences, pain, talents, personalities, resources, and relationships like that to create the most perfectly exquisite mural that stretches across time and space and eternity.
"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." Ephesians 2:10
I hope y'all have a beautiful week!
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Such beauty in the way God works! I love how you tied in your painting by numbers (which I love, and now must go find one to try!) to how God works in our lives. We are his masterpieces, being filled in bit by bit, color by color.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this analogy!
Very nice comparison to the life we live.
ReplyDelete