Tip of My Iceberg

The beauty of storms with their accompanying winds provides an incredible canvas of color at sunset. Skies painted with oranges, yellows, and reds that defy human reproduction and yet invite those who are creative to attempt to fabricate a likeness of the hues.

I have several friends who are gifted in watercolors. I’ve dabbled, but I don’t have the eye for color, the patience for technique, nor the talent for design that they do. I can value their work and encourage them to continue to generate works of beauty. They each are gifted, but none of them is ever completely pleased by their end result. “If only”, “I should have”, “But it’s not” are words that often follow complimentary encouragements. Where I see beauty, they see “not enough”.

Too often we diminish our efforts with a humble “but”. Often a false humility where we act with modesty while hoping others will see our promise and deny our negative input. Our humanity seeks to create; it’s the fingerprints of God within us that lead us to yearn to make something that will last beyond our lives. Not only art in its many iterations or writing in its numerous representations, but other things that will endure and make a difference. Big splashes in the moment are often short-lived. The classics are identified as such because they withstand the test of time. Their value extends through different seasons, eras, changes because they exhibit a lasting worth.

People stand in line to catch a glimpse of DaVinci’s Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. Schools everywhere teach Shakespeare and Charles Dickens and Jane Austen for the universal themes represented there. With a nod to the Olympics, world records are made and broken quickly. Even influencers fall out of favor when their fifteen minutes of fame has come to an end.

Many who have held honors have died. Their works have outlived them–but how many more generations will find value in what once was but is no longer?

There is a Master Designer whose work will outlast everything else. What He created was beautiful and perfect, made in love with the desire to provide for His creation.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in Our image, to be like Us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, they livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’ So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them….Then God looked over all He had made, and He saw that it was very good!” Genesis 1:26-27, 31

What God made was very good in His eyes. He put people on earth to enjoy a relationship with Him. Up to a point, it all worked out well. Until those people God had created decided they wanted to be like God.

Our brokenness doesn’t diminish the magnificence of God’s creation.

The beauty of each one of us who are God’s creations reflects the wonderful diversity of His palette. We mirror the variety of tones and hues He has used to design each of us who are beautiful and exceptional in His eyes.

When we see others we too often miss the wonder of an individual, the details of a specific life, even if the circumstances are hard or the challenges are huge. Nobody is a mistake.

Like the beauty of the sky at sunset, it often takes a storm to fully appreciate the incredible colors right in front of our eyes.

How amazing would it be if we could look through the lens of wonder at those we meet and see them as created by the Master Designer?

Valuing others might become easier to do.