A simple gift. A thoughtful gift. One I would enjoy, if only I had the time.
Time to spare. Time to sit. Time to color.
It would be six months before I found the time. It’s not as if I was constantly busy the whole six months. Sure, work, family and church took up a good proportion but, my downtime hours were filled with non important things; surfing social media, reading way too many blog posts and watching the box (television). I had the time. I filled it with clutter.
The Time Had Come
My eight year old grandson was spending the afternoon with me, when he tired of building Lego and asked for paper and colored pencils I remembered the gift of the inspirational coloring book.
He did a little coloring on the fist page and promptly returned to the Lego.
I flicked through the pages, my eyes feasted on beautiful intricate designs, each page featuring an encouraging scripture. It was my turn and my time to pick up the colored pencils and begin the creative process of turning a black and white page into a masterpiece of color.
Okay folks, I’m not going to make a living as an artist as you can see from the above picture, but I enjoyed it. I picked up a pencil and commenced. Yellow for the center of the flower, then a pink for the petals. Add jade, aqua, mid blue and a soft brown and my first design on a page loaded with design was done. Just a trillion more to go! The intricate designs fascinated me, I scoured the book in search of duplicate designs. I didn’t find any.
He colors us with His love, grace and mercy
As I continued with my artwork I thought about the Lord, how He colors our lives with His love, His grace and His mercy, carefully and meticulously taking us from a life of generic black and white, to one filled with colors that only He can create.
It takes time to color the intricate designs in the book, my first masterpiece is only half done, still a lot of coloring to do. The pencils are line up ready to be used, ready to bring more color to the design. I’m sure thousands of inspirational coloring books has been sold, and just as many have already been colored, yet, none of them will look like my artwork. It is uniquely mine!
Uniquely His
When we invite God in to color our lives we will become a masterpiece that is uniquely His. He doesn’t color us in one go. He could, but that would be too much for us to take; He’s kind and gentle like that! He doesn’t rush us but draws us patiently into a closer relationship with Himself. James 1: 2-3 in the Message Bible talks about our true colors coming out when we are under pressure. As we allow God to color us as His masterpiece it will be His colors in us that will be exposed.
You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
Are you ready for more God color in your life? I know I am, what about you?
Until next week
Helena
Looking to Jesus. Living in His Radiance.
Like you, I have coloring books and colored pencils that I seldom make time to use, but I always enjoy the way it slows and relaxes me. I loved your analogy of God coloring our lives on His timetable.
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Oh it really does relax and calms. I love how the Lord’s color relaxes and calms us too.
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Lovely post! I agree that each season of our life is like a piece of a puzzle or colors that create a picture we can’t see yet. Also, I have about 4 adult coloring books and find them relaxing!
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Oh yes, each season we walk with the Lord brings out his colors if grace, mercy and love so beautifully.
4 books! I have a long way to go just to complete my first book.
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beautiful – God colors each of us totally different
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Absolutely! When we get that truth deep inside us we will stop comparing ourselves to others.
Thank you for stopping by.
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Thank you so very much for these encouraging words. A gift from God perfectly timed. I so needed to be reminded that “He doesn’t colour us in one go” and of James 1: 2-3. “Let it do its work”- oh how I need to hold onto that truth right now, that God is in this hard leading me through it to bring His beauty into my awful weaknesses that keep rising to the surface. Thank you.
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Honored to be used to encourage you. You are colored in His grace, love and mercy, they are on the inside seeping through waiting to bust out in all their glory.
Rest your head on his chest as you go through the hard time.
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Love this imagery and have never thought of it in this way. This is such a good reminder that His work in us takes time. He is slowly working to transform us and shape us to become more like Christ! We’re eager to rush the process, but He is faithful and calls us to be patient and let Him do what He knows is best for us. I’ve been reminding myself of this lately! Thank you so much for sharing!
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You are so welcome. Glad you were encouraged. Thank you for stopping by.
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Absolutely and amen!
Sent from my iPhone
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Here’s to a life filled with color…God style.
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