All the Blank Spaces

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Well,  I learned something… I can’t color. 

I, a 22-year-old-adult-woman,  cannot color. 

I tried. I really did.  I had one of those gorgeous adult coloring books opened up in front of me. Each page filled with beautiful arrangements of various flowers and leaves. That’s it. Nothing too scary. Just really pretty, and fairly simple, scenes of flowers. 

There was only one problem- there was no color. 

And, before you start thinking it, yes, I fully understand the point of a coloring book. I completely grasp the concept that each page is starchly black-and-white for the sole purpose that the possessor is supposed to add the color. Any color. All. The. Color. 

THAT’S THE ISSUE! 

How do I know what it’s supposed to look like? What if I start coloring a flower one color, and, in all reality, it’s supposed to be another? What if I color it one way and then halfway through I regret choosing that color at all? What if that page stares at me, glaringly white...hauntingly white...while I muddle through all of these weighty decisions? 

Okay, okay, I’ll cool it. But I think you get the point--> Coloring gives me anxiety.

It’s just too much. Too many decisions and far too many blank unknowns. 

I guess that’s some of the qualm I take with life, too many unknowns. I’m a planner. I love to know the details; and I mean ALLLLLLL the details. But there is absolutely no “knowing” the details of the future. None. Zip. Natta. 

Sure, I can tell you what I *think* might happen. I can guesstimate some things about as well as a weatherman can predict the 10-day forecast; but truthfully, none of my guesses (even the most well-planned and educated ones) can hold a candle to what might actually happen. And that’s what I dislike. 

Life, just like that coloring page, is far too blank for my liking. 

I consider the future and it seems so full of empty white spaces waiting to be filled with my color-of-choice. As I move through it, one color or another starts to fill itself inside one of those blank holes and then BAM another color splashes inside. Before I know it, parts of my life are beginning to look like some form of old-school tie-dye!

And that’s another thing. Can anyone *really* color inside the lines all the time? No! I’m convinced that even the most skilled color-ers (I think I just invented a profession of some kind) have moments where their masterpieces look like a 3 year old possessed their hand at some point or another. 

All I was trying to do on my page was color the similar-looking flower petals orange. That’s it! Just a monotony of white space, orange color. White space, orange color. White space, orange- OH! Look! Let’s spew some orange color on some of those strict black lines too! 

UGGGGGHHHHHHH

The not-so-subtle perfectionist in me seriously considered burning the page after that point. Why can’t the black edges be slightly elevated off the white part? Then coloring outside the lines wouldn’t be possible anymore! THEN coloring could become more like painting those cutesy window suncatchers, where accidentally putting color where you don’t want it is nigh-on impossible. It would seriously reduce the potential for mistakes. Now that would be an enjoyable coloring experience. I should patent this...

Again I say, if only life could be like that. Clearly-defined borders and a paint-by-number-like key to show you what to color where; what choices to make when. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there that wishes life came with a step-by-step manual. 

You know, though, in a large way, it does. God’s Word is incredible and it’s so full those black-line margins we desperately need. Scripture lays out right and wrong in very detailed descriptions. The Lord basically hands humanity a pallet of colors which He has designated for us to use in coloring in our lives. Each person’s life will look radically different as a completed picture, but the same lines of right and wrong, sinful and permissible, never change from person to person. 

As far as some of those “grey area” choices go, I am a firm believer that the Lord can, and will, use each and every one of them to work out His plan. Before the beginning of time The Lord formulated His plan for creation, and He’s been working it out ever since moment one. Sometimes I need to put myself back in my place. Who do I think I am if I believe that I can *actually* alter the plan of the God of the Universe? Prideful, that’s who I am. Even my most drastically terrible mistake, even the most sloppily colored section, couldn’t possibly detract from the masterpiece-plan that the Lord has designed. 

Like seriously people, we ain’t all that. 

And as humbling as that thought is, it’s also a little comforting. I can’t ever mess up *too* badly. You can’t ever mess up too badly. No circumstance is beyond redemption. Nor is any person beyond redemption for that matter. Nothing is ever “too far gone”.  Why? Because God is sovereign. He doesn’t swerve in and out of control. He doesn’t for a few moments hold it all together and then suddenly find Himself at a loss because His plan is altered by one of us. He is in *complete control* ALL of the time. Whether we’re coloring with the right crayon or not. Whether we flawlessly contain our color within the borders or if we happen to smudge a few lines along the way. 

Let’s be real. We’re not gonna be perfect, y’all. We are imperfect people in a horrendously imperfect world. The Prince of Darkness is alive and well and he’s shady. He knows his stuff and he knows detailed ways to trip each of us up in our faith-walk. 

But don’t lose hope. 

We, as believers, have the victory over evil- over Satan and his minions. We’ve spoken on this before. Pray, seek wise counsel,  take each moment, each choice, and run it through the filter of Scripture. Pause before you press your life-crayon to paper. Double, triple, check that the choices you’re making align with God’s character and His Word. By doing so we can minimize the chance of our missing God and what He wants for us.

I heard it told once how some of the great paintings of old got completed. The head artist would decide on the painting. He would go to the site and sketch out the scene he wanted done. He would put together all the details and lay everything out so that things were planned down to the most intricate details of his piece. Then, after his plan was decided, he would seek out skilled artists for individual tasks; some men for the landscape, some for the animals, some for the shape of people, some for the facial features, some for the sky work- each an expert in his own specialty. The head artist would then take his plan and he would delegate out small pieces to each specialist- every artist working in an individual manner and yet as a team- as a part of the whole masterpiece. At the end of the project, every person had finished their assigned task and the painting was complete.

This is, in a lot of ways, similar of us and the Lord. God, the head artist, has laid out the master-plan for creation and He has delegated to each believer a task in order to bring His masterpiece to fruition. The Lord is a master painter, if you will, He doesn’t *need* our help with His plan- He’s God, afterall; but He allows each of us to partake in His plan for many reasons (some of which we can talk about in a later post <wink>). No matter how poorly our painting skills (or coloring skills, lol) are, nothing is outside the expertise of the Master Painter to redeem. God is sovereign and His plan for creation will come to completion *exactly* as He has designed; and He’s choosing to allow us to help him with it. 

I think that’s just awesome. 

And intimidating. 

But awesome, for sure.

So seek the Lord. Ask Him to show you how to begin coloring in some of those blank spaces in your life. If there’s areas that you just know have been colored wrong, ask Him to forgive you and to redeem those places. Seek Him and remember- your life, your work, even your smallest scribbles of color, are all a part of His grand masterpiece; His beautiful and intricate plan for creation. 

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” 

Philippians 1:6

Happy Coloring <3