I like the color you are.

Hey.

How is my wonderful and blessed family doing? I thank God so much for each of you who touch me every day through thoughts of you and through the power of prayer. This one is really long, but I had a lot to say...

Picture This.

Picture an artist sitting in his studio. The studio has wood floors and white walls. It’s really quite a simple studio but it offers a very tranquil environment. There is a huge window that he's looking out, the sun is shining in and the window is open. The cool air blowing through refreshes him while he works. It’s just him and his ideas. He gets out a canvas and looks at it. He begins with one stroke, and gets another color. Another stroke, another color. He mixes the colors and adds more strokes, gets more colors, mixes more, more colors, more strokes, more mixing, more colors, and adds more and more strokes.

Years have passed. He has devoted everything, every moment and every ounce of energy to this work of art. He works and works. He wants every stroke to be perfect. Picture him as he sits and strokes each stroke. Feel the emotion and passion behind each stroke. Picture his face full of determination. And picture him as an idea for the picture comes to mind. He smiles, or he jumps up or he just lights up, "ah, that's it! That’s what I want." Picture his eyes as they look and gaze over every inch of this picture. He wants it perfect. He wants beauty in it. He wants people to feel all of the emotions he feels. He wants people to understand him by looking at the picture. After all, this entire picture reflects him.

He finally finishes the masterpiece and he sees that it's good.

Now picture this, remember the window that was open? Well, a gust of wind blows through and knocks the canvas off his tripod; it falls to the floor with the paint side facing to the floor. If that's not bad enough, it starts to rain, and the water pours in through the window. It pours and pours and pours on the picture. The artist looks down with saddened eyes at the water logged and smudged up picture. He bends down, carefully picks it up, lays it on the tripod, and starts to work on it again. He doesn't look defeated, maybe just a little frustrated, but continues working. As he's fixing it he realizes he is missing the color red, but there is no red on his paint tray. So in order to fix the painting he cuts himself and begins spreading his blood all over the canvas.

What am I getting at here?

You see we can look at this word picture in a few different ways.

First of all as a community.

God sat in His Studio with His angels, and He looked out the window and wanted to share what He felt, so He made a masterpiece, creation. It was beautiful and it was good, but then the rain (Satan) came pouring in through the window and water damaged the masterpiece. But God loved us so much that He bent down and picked us up (think of the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph, Moses, the Israelites, David) When He realized He was missing a color He knew what to do. He sent His son, who poured out His blood for our salvation, to save the masterpiece.

Second, we each are that masterpiece.

He made you, He made me. He was excited. He was excited over every detail, every stroke. He knew what He was doing when He made you. Not one stroke was wrong. He wants every stroke right where it is and the exact color it is. You see, we were made perfect, perfect for His masterpiece. Although you may feel like you don’t fit into this world and its values, you fit perfectly and hold perfect value in Heaven. Our Father knew exactly how to make us so that the masterpiece would not be missing what He wanted to show the world. Our growth in Him is like a new layer. As we grow closer to Him and reflect Him to the world, it's Him fixing and adding to the masterpiece.

We each are our own masterpiece blending together to get back the master copy of the masterpiece.

In Addition, if God knit us in our mother's womb, therefore knowing every stitch, seam, and fiber of our being, if He knows our every color, knows every careful detail He put into us, well then He must be the best one to mend us when we're torn, right?

Cheering you on as you come to find your stroke of color that’s all your own.

May you know that He designed you perfectly according to His will.

Kaylee