For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

It’s an invitation to paint with Him, His hand holding mine, as we run the brush across the canvas to make something beautiful. It’s an invitation to get messy, not worrying if the paint gets in my hair or rubs on my face, because He loves me and enjoys being with me and has time for me. 

Each of my days can be a beautiful painting, offered for His delight, but also a process of doing something beautiful with Him. My paintings have looked different depending on the season. If each activity were a different color, some paintings would use many more colors than others. 

When I had baby Faith, her color of paint covered much of the canvas for a while, and there was less Bible study color, less housekeeping color, less phone conversation color, and less cooking color. God enjoys all the different kinds of paintings filled with the colors of loving my husband, the colors of planning meals, shopping, preparing, and cleaning up, the colors of caring for and training and teaching my children, and inviting them to enjoy God. And the colors of writing, and Bible studies, and music and watching a fun show. Some of the color is added when I am doing nothing but being held by God, and some strokes get interrupted before I think I’m finished. 

But each painting gets stuck to God’s fridge, part of all the paintings of my brothers and sisters in Christ, a mosaic of kingdom beauty. And when we stand together and look at the fridge, we praise Him for giving the paints and the ability to make something beautiful, remembering that He is guiding our hands to help us paint. And that even the splotches where we tried to pull our hand away from His get redeemed as He guides our hands again, reminding us of how much we need Him.