The Story

What do you picture when you hear the word “art”? Maybe the Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s “David”. Maybe paints and brushes. Maybe you picture a museum with modern sculptures and elaborate paintings. The one thing I’m pretty sure that you don’t picture is junk. Junk, you say, why would the word “art” make me think of junk?

It wouldn’t, and that’s the point.

When we see art, we see beauty. We don’t see the paint splattered all over the artist’s floor. We don’t see the aching weariness they felt after laboring over their masterpiece for hours on end. We don’t see how many times they painted over their picture to get it just right. All we see is the end result, beautiful art.

I think life is a lot like that, the difference is that we’re both the observer and the artwork.

The late Christian music legend Rich Mullins once said that “[God] takes the junk of our lives and makes the most beautiful art.” Sometimes it’s easy for us to see that when we look at the lives of others, but harder to see when we look at our own. God is The Artist, we are the artwork. God knows the reason for every brushstroke He’s painted, every chisel mark He’s carved, and every tear you’ve cried. The hard part is that you don’t.

Did the block of stone know why Michelangelo was carving it? No.

Did the canvas know why Da Vinci spent so much time painstakingly adding detail after detail? No.

And neither do we know why God works the way He does. We have the truth of His word that “He has made it all beautiful in His time…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and while that may not make this life any easier, it gives us a hope for the future. A hope that someday the junk of our lives, the chaos of this world and the pain that we feel will be made beautiful.

My mission at In Beautiful Chaos is that everything I share will help to bring you hope, encouragement and the reminder that you are not alone. Welcome to In Beautiful Chaos!