22/09/2024
Grief Corner: Paint By Number
By Dawn Helms
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9 NIV
Life is like a paint-by-number painting. The structure is there; the lines and numbers. There are paint colors provided but there are no hard core rules about color choices. The picture may not turn out like the sample picture without using the provided colors in the proper number space, but to each his own. My life’s painting had finally started coming together. It wasn’t perfect and it didn’t look like what it was supposed to, however, it was my life. Colorful to say the least.
Then loss and grief happened. It was like someone took that yet unfinished painting and gave me a new canvas. Only there were no numbers or lines to paint by, no colors provided, just a canvas and a brush. Where does one begin? What colors do I use? What scenery will I paint in light of loss? It’s overwhelming at first. Some of the best advice I have been given through my grief journey is to do one thing at a time. So I rebuild, paint a new picture, one decision at a time. Some days the color choices are easy, some days black seems to overwhelm the new painting, but I press on.
I often think about the color of God’s glory. In my mind it is brilliant white and in that brilliant white is all the colors of the rainbow. And in my heart, I know that The Lord that establishes my steps will overlay whatever I paint with all the colors of His Glory. Now that’s a beautiful picture!
YOUR TURN: Have you been working on your new canvas? What does it look like?
