by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

In the beginning God created… Genesis 1:1

My mother is an artist, and I’ve always admired the sure strokes she uses as she applies color to canvas. The picture didn’t just happen, dictated by the tools she used or the circumstances. It was dictated by the vision she held so firmly in her mind.

In her mind’s eye, the picture was always finished before she even began. But to me, watching it take shape, it so often looked more like chaos than art.

In our own lives, God is the artist. And even if what is happening right now looks like chaos, we can be certain that He has the end result in mind. The colors He uses to paint our lives may not be the blues and greens an artist uses. Instead, the colors He uses are experiences, emotions, and people. They infuse our lives with a vibrancy that makes our lives so vivid.

He wields his soft brush with masterful strokes, allowing just enough shadow and darkness to bring out the brilliance of the light. From up close, the colors may look muddy and the shapes indistinct, but viewed from a distance, each life is a masterpiece.

So whether our lives are being covered in drab colors of grey and brown, or highlighted by vibrant yellows and reds, we can rest assured the end product will be beautiful.

Edie Melson—author, blogger, speaker—has written numerous books, including her most recent fiction – Alone, and nonfiction – While My Child is Away. She’s also the military family blogger at Guideposts.org. Her popular blog, The Write Conversation, reaches thousands each month and has just been named as one of the 2017 Writer’s Digest Top 101 Websites for Writers. She’s the director of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference and the Vice President of the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, as well as the Social Media Director for Southern Writers Magazine.