My husband Ben emailed me an article the other day that simultaneously melted my heart and blew me away. It was about an artist and business owner by the name of Fred Giovannitti who takes his children’s modest drawings on the plane with him during business trips and turns them into vibrant masterpieces. Let me show you just one example (and please check out the full article here):

 

The article (see link above) features 14 before-and-after photos of his kids’ creations come to life with the effervescent aid of his colored pencils. In their original state, the drawings were quite ordinary, childish of course, and probably only outstanding in the opinion of Mr. and Mrs. Giovannitti (God bless doting parents!). But after soaring through the lower stratosphere, held carefully in the artist’s skillful hands, they are now bursting with character, warmth, and charm, appearing poised to spring off the page, take you by the hands, and begin dancing – or even flying – with you around the room. It’s incredible how a little expert coloring, a bit of superb shading, and a liberal dash of whimsy can kindle the imagination and infuse joy into the souls of spectators trudging through a day, or perhaps a whole world, of listlessness and stifling gray.

As I read the article and admired the pictures, I had this thought: This is what God longs to do for us…

I began looking at each picture as a metaphor for our gifts, our plans, our goals and dreams, and this powerful verse drifted up from my spirit and floated into the forefront of my mind:

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” –Ephesians 3:20, NLT

Those amateurish drawings? Those squiggly lines, sloppy asymmetry, and distorted perspectives? Those are my innate gifts…and your innate gifts. We’re all born with various talents and skills that enable us to build, to create, to theorize, to innovate, to compete, to cure, etc., but until we hand them over to the Artist soaring high up in the sky, that is, our Heavenly Father, they will be no more grand than every day kindergarten scribbles. They will never possess the supernal spark that can pierce through paper, sing through music, whisper through ordinary work and touch people’s lives with the gospel of hope and unshakable peace.

The Lord loves to turn the mundane into masterpieces. He does it every morning when He transforms black, star-studded skies into sunrises awash with a sea of colors. He does it every spring when radiant foliage, butterflies and birds bid adieu to the chill of winter. And He’s done it in countless lives, from Abraham, Ruth, Esther, and David in the Old Testament, to the apostle Paul and a motley crew of early Christ followers in the New. He wants to do it in yours.

Whatever piece of art you’re holding onto – and no matter how amazing you or your mom and best friend think it is! – I encourage you to hand it over to God.

 

 

Ask Him to color it with hues of which only His mind can conceive,

To paint it perfectly with strokes of grace that human hands cannot achieve,

To fill it with a deeper beauty that both eyes and spirit can perceive…

 

Pray that it will become both a marvel and a blessing, so when the world notices it, they will feel led to find out more about its artist. Then, you can look skyward and reply with absolute sincerity, “You can know Him, too.”