Recently, Kat and I went to a Paint n Sip night with the other women from our branch of Disciples of Jesus in Sydney North. As the night progressed and we worked at our lighthouse paintings, guided by a YouTube tutorial, each one of us at some point fell into the trap of tinkering too much with our paintings: obsessing over a crooked line, a wonky petal or some imperfect colour blending. A common refrain heard across the room was “you need to know when it’s time to stop” and we’d giggle because we all knew the temptation to just keep at it.

 On Sunday, I was leading worship at our DOJ gathering, and had chosen the song Canvas and the Clay because it spoke to the theme of transformation, which was our focus that day.  The song talks of God as the artist and potter, while we’re the canvas and the clay, and how he’s creating something beautiful out of us. I was struck when we got to the bridge by the refrain: “you’re not finished with me yet” and I remembered that this was our experience of being “artists” the other night: that we just couldn’t draw ourselves away from what we were creating. I’m by no means suggesting that God is an obsessive and dissatisfied perfectionist in the way that we were at Paint n Sip, but rather that he’s always at work in us in a way that is for our good.

The invitation is then open to us to let the loving artist transform, mould, create and sculpt us into something truly beautiful. How are you allowing the Lord to do this in your life?

Berna Toohey