A little touch here...

"beautiful in its time"

Ecclesiastes 3:11

So, remember the wonderful artist I told you about?  The one who's been giving my Awesome Girl art lessons?  Hannah!  Right!  I knew you'd remember!

All of her working time has been spent preparing for an upcoming Art Festival.  She hopes to sell a great deal of her work there, so the more paintings she has done, the more she can sell.  But she's running out of time.  So she's working hard, finishing up projects and getting them ready to show.

And every time I go in to pick up my Awesome Girl,  I'm eager to see how Hannah's work is coming.  She's got three paintings she's almost done with, and I look forward to seeing what details she has added since the last time I saw them.

But for the past few weeks, every time I walk into the studio, I think the paintings are done.  They are hanging on the wall, looking beautiful and inspirational and wonderful.

But then Hannah shakes her head...  "Oh no, they're far from finished.  I still have to touch up over there, and add this here and add some highlights there..."

It's always such a surprise to me, because they look perfect.  And if they look done to me, they'd probably look done to a lot of people ~ I'm just an average art viewer, after all.

But Hannah's practiced eye knows better.  She sees what's not yet there, and knows that what's good, could be better.

God's like that.  Ecclesiastes 3:11 says "He has made everything beautiful in its time."  He has planned for flowers to bloom on their own schedule, trees to produce fruit in their season, and for us to grow to completion at the pace that He guides. 

Is there someone in your life that you admire?  Someone with wisdom, gentleness and inner peace?  Maybe you can't imagine any way that person could be better, but He can.

Do you know someone that you think, um... needs work?  Well, they do.  But so do you.

I think maybe this is why He tells us not to judge.  We just don't know what to look for.  We criticize someone for not being finished, when we should realize that no one is.

But know, that when He looks at you, He is so pleased with what He sees so far!

~ "He who has begun a good work in you

will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" ~

Philippians 1:6