"All Things Well"

  "All Things Well"   

"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us."

(Psalm 90:17)

   

    

   I wonder if you're familiar with Bob Ross?  Bob was a career Air Force Master Sergeant turned artist who produced and performed a Public Broadcasting System show in which he created a painting from a blank canvas and oils in less than 30 minutes.  Beautiful scenes of God's creation sprang forth, of sky and clouds, rocks and mountains, trees, flowers and foliage, and sublime nuances of light, reflection and shade.  

   I mention Bob and his artistry because my daughter Emmie and recently chuckled as we watched an episode of the show.  Near the end of his painting, Bob added a tree that seemed completely inappropriate and superfluous to the scene he depicted.  "Oh no!" we exclaimed simultaneously.  We then smiled and looked at each other as another thought arrived in our minds in the same instant, namely, that Bob's seemingly renegade tree would soon stand forth in its place of beauty in the finished painting.  It did.  Of course!

    This gives pause to consider those times when the Great Artist, our Heavenly Father, seemingly adds one of those rogue disturbances into our lives.  "Oh no!" we respond internally and perhaps even verbally.  As with Bob Ross, however - and infinitely more - we do well to remember the wondrous artistry of the Lord who "hath done all things well" (Mark 7:37).  The addition that troubles us will ultimately fit into God's finished work of conforming His believing children to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-29).  Thus, we do well to replace our "Oh no!" with "I trust!" -  "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee" (Psalm 56:3).

   Bob Ross gently and skillfully produced beautiful paintings, inviting us into both the process and the finished product.  His gift reflected the truth of our Lord's beauty in creation, and also God's capacity to determine or allow seemingly ill-fitting realities into our lives that for all the world seem beyond the possibility for beauty.  They are not, and we shall not disappointed when we unite our "I trust" with the artistry of His perfect way.  He has indeed done all things well, He is doing all things well, and supposedly rogue trees will one day be known as the greatest confirmation of one of the Bible's greatest affirmations…

"As for God, His way is perfect."

(II Samuel 22:31)

Weekly Memory Verse

    His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.

(II Peter 1:3)