Encouragement

Blotches and Blobs

by Anne Adams
01/19/21
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Blotches and Blobs

“Oh, no, Sarah!” 

Jenna gasped as she saw what her small daughter had done for right there  in the center of her friend Sue’s nearly finished painting was - a blob!  They had just stepped into the kitchen for a moment with the painting left on the easel along and the toddler watching TV, but now Sarah was standing there clutching the painting laden brush. And on what had been a dazzling and vivid scene of a country cottage with a verdant green lawn now sported a bright yellow splotch!

“Oh, Sue, I’m so sorry!” Jenna moaned as she removed the errant brush from the child’s fingers. “Can you wipe it off?”

Sue picked up a small tool and scraped at the addition and came away with a bit of it. Yet it was soon evident that most of the blotch was there to stay. She stepped back to take another look.

“It’s an unusual shape, but you know, there might be a way.” She paused and cocked her head in thought. “I have an idea. Let me see what I can do.”

The painting was exhibited some time later and the critics were effusive in their comments. “Such a unique approach!” Said one. “Bright, colorful, and unexpected!” said another.

For Sue had taken the child’s mistake and with more brushwork and added colors, she had turned the one mistake into a bright and vivid flower garden, topped with an unusual yellow blossom.

Frequently God repairs our mistakes when he turns our blunders into something useful and beautiful. Perhaps we’ve wandered away from him, or have failed to trust him in some situation, but in a symbolic sense the canvas of our lives features a blob!  

Yet the wonderful news is that blotches like that don’t bother God at all, for on the contrary, he’s in the blob-repairing business!  For not only does he forgive our mistakes, but often he takes what we think of as a terrible mistake and uses it in any number of ways to accomplish his purposes. No, our mistakes, even in God’s service, are never final if we are willing to put them behind us and keep moving under his perfect guidance and provision. Truly, we’ll always make mistakes, but they remain permanent only when we fail to let God turn our blobs into blessings!