There is so much power held within a word, a page, a book. Every sentence strung together to craft an outline, every paragragh collected to shade in the details, every chapter turned to reveal the color...
If so much beauty is beheld within the confines of a singular, manmade, fastened together book, then who is to say there is no beauty to be found within the open air of your divinely created, God ordained, image bearing life? Such a belief is to deny the evidence that is all around...
Every cell strung together to craft a body, every piece of a spirit-filled personality lit from within to illuminate the details, every experience gone through to reveal the colors of life...
The sheer amount of complexity present within our bodies, within our personalities, within our experiences simply cannot, it must not, amount to nothing. There is so much more to you than what you may be led to believe...so much more beauty to the intricately crafted story that is your life.
Reflecting on these past few months has given me the words to finally articulate what I have had revelations on in the past. Getting the privilege to go on mission in Bologna, Italy where I had the honor to meet so many beautiful people, each of which had their own beautiful stories to tell, made me realize that God is present in every single interaction, whether the other person believes or not. Every single person on this earth has been intentionally created with a unique combination that is unlike any other. Every single person on this earth has had experiences in a way that no one else has had. Every single person on this earch is an image-bearer of an infinitely good, endlessly loving, boundlessly intentional Creator. What a joy, what an honor it is to be able to meet another person on this earth. For through that person, I get to glimpse a piece of God, a piece of who He really is. And each new person I get the privilege to interact with holds a new piece of Him that I may never had known before. Each new divinely beautiful individual unlocks another layer of the infinity that is God, allowing my understanding and knowledge of Him to grow deeper, forming an intimacy unlike what I previously knew.
Getting to glimpse into another person's story is like getting to view a masterfully created painting. The artist, Himself, has bestowed His own likeness into the image, and what a pleasure it is to have the opportunity to search for it. Much like an art historian analyzes a piece in a museum, so too do we get to look at the lives of others, at our own lives, from the lens of artistry. The reaches of our canvas are unknowable to us. We do not have the capacity to conceptualize just how long and how wide our lives will stretch in beauty and adventure. But He does. He knows because He is crafting it. He knows because He has His paintbrush in hand, carefully and intentionally painting each stroke, just so. We do not have the foresight to think of all the growth we will encounter or the joy present throughout the journey. But He does. He knows because He is embedding a piece of himself in every new frame, in every new landscape. He knows because He can see the whole picture; He has a plan for what He is creating, and it is nothing short of beautifully good.
As I am sitting here writing this, I am on the other side of a night full of more stories. Revival is happening all around...and what is revival if not a collection of stories, both at an individual level in the hearts of man and in the collection of a community. It is in Europe, in Italy. It is in America, in Ohio. It is at home, and with friends and with family. God's masterpiece is not finished, His paintbrush is still in hand. A new color pallette is coming. We just have to look up to see it...
More on this topic later and the stories I have experienced that have shaped my life and the lives of others, but for now, rest in this: God sees you, He loves you, and He is intentionally crafting a beautiful story, a beautiful painting within your life.
You, yourself, are art.
"Perhaps you were created for such a time as this..." Esther 4:14
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