MY HUSBAND PAUL DOING A PLEIN AIR DEMONSTRATION IN THE PARK LAST SUMMER

I’m blessed to be married to an artist.  I knew it way back in a high school art class. All the students were going to try three dimensional art, by pouring plaster of Paris into milk cartons, letting it harden and then chiseling the block of plaster into something recognizable.

Paul had his own designated area, behind a plastic curtain which would prevent the flying granite from hitting the rest of the students.  He donned his safety classes and began to carve a masterpiece from a cornerstone of an old, demolished building.  His love for art carried him to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee.

Most people think artists just happen- they require no training – they’re simply endowed with talent.  Lots of folks believe it’s a nice hobby, but certainly not something that you can make a living at.  They don’t realize that artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci served as apprentices at a young age.  They along with other artists went through the process of learning their craft.   Of course they had an inborn talent for art, but it had to be nurtured and taught to them as well.

Paul went on to learn the process of printing as an apprentice for his first job.    He learned how to key line and paste up ads when he worked for an art studio.  Those ancient ways of doing things are now done totally by computer.  He succeeded as a creative director at a few agencies until he formed his own company.  He continued to learn, to think outside the box and be educated in the art of business.  Today he’s been able to sell an occasional painting from time to time.  He also spent years providing works of sculpture for homes and businesses in our home state.

When you think about it, we’re all works of art.  God has created us with the most amazing bodies – bones and muscles that have the ability to lift more than we should – vital organs that keep us breathing and sustaining us.  We have the capacity to be warned by our brain when something is wrong somewhere else in the body.  Everything has been designed perfectly.  Even when things break down, we can be assured that God is taking care of us.

We might consider ourselves to be a blank canvas, just waiting to be turned into a masterpiece.  We could perceive ourselves as a hunk of clay, being punched and manipulated against our own will to be made perfect by the Master Artist.  While we’re going through the tough times, we’re being restructured, remolded, revived.  God doesn’t make mistakes.  Our sin has caused His handiwork to be tarnished, broken and dead.

Still, because He loves us so much, He won’t stand still for that.  He made it possible for us to survive death and destruction in hell.  His plan was in place, even before man fell into sin.  He knew we’d fall, but He had a remedy for our failure, before we crashed.

When we’re born, the canvas may be blank, but God has a plan for our lives.  He worked it out before we even came into the world.  There’s no earthly artist like that.  He alone is the Creator who makes all things right again for those who trust and believe in Him.