God really blessed our time at the retreat last weekend. I want to blog a little for just an overview of each speaker.
Emily did not think she would be able to go at all, because she had to take her art students to the one and only UIL art contest, which was scheduled for Saturday after we had already scheduled the retreat. So, on Friday night, she ran in and spoke about 15 minutes, then ran back to Stephenville, to get up early Saturday to take students to an art contest. But, the short time she was there, she was brilliant.
As an art teacher, she used painting as an illustration of the Christian life. Painters do not use paint straight out of the tube. The colors are too bright, too defined. She showed a canvas with stripes painted with paint straight out of the tube. The edges were too severe, and the colors were not interesting. Painters always blend the colors. The experiences that we have, the hard times, the difficult relationships, the problems we deal with are the things that God uses to blend us. We need the blending. As young Christians, we often have very strict ideas about what God would do, and about what people who are following God should do. We often see things in terms of what is right or wrong without regard to a persons experience, feelings. As God uses our experiences to blend us, we come to know God better, and are more understanding of others. We become less severe, more compassionate, more interesting, easier to “look at”, less judgmental, more grounded.
Even with the colors blended, still there is no definition or depth in the picture until the painter adds white. Even just a tiny bit of white on the paintbrush added to a color changes the color and the whole picture. Jesus is the white that brings the depth to our life. With the light of Jesus, we are changed.
No comments:
Post a Comment