Gods beautiful masterpiece

God is painting a picture on the canvas of our lives. Our bodies are merely the frames on which to paint. (L. Dillow from ‘Calm my Anxious Heart’)

This little quote really helped me to reflect upon self esteem and our self worth when thinking about ourselves. I know from personal experience and in the lives of my friends that so many people struggle with self image. We have some sort of innate tendency to compare ourselves to others and want to be more like this or less like that. What I understand from this quote is that God made us just as we are and this is in his image. Whatever we think of our physical form it is made by his almighty hand. Although this is a wonderful truth its not always easy to accept. Society has such strong opinions on beauty we can find it difficult to resist the pressure to disregard Gods opinions on beauty and go along with society. The thing that struck me from the Dillow quote above is that god is ‘painting’. After forming us in his image the masterpiece isn’t complete. Frames come in all shapes and sizes, but once the artwork is in the gallery it is not the frame that it looked at or admired. The body is not the finished work, god is continuing to work on us shaping us into the person he wants us to be, making us more beautiful and closer to his image. We need to work with god in the painting process so that our inner beauty and personality can be seen in the frame. We should not discard the frame before the painting has begun. God has given us so many beautiful character traits and gifts, it is in using these and developing them that truly makes us beautiful. Proverbs 31 is a commonly used passage when looking at the idea of beauty (look out for the next blog on this passage). In verse 30 it expresses ‘Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised’.

In spending time worrying about being more beautiful we waste time that could be spent on cultivating more godly traits which can last forever. Do you want beauty in the eyes of society that is momentary and fleeting or do you want your treasures in heaven?