I've always been a huge fan of art; painting, music, writing. Basically, if it involves art, I love it! Personally, I'm a very firm believer in the expressing of one's self... The idea of being able to convey a message from your inner most being to another persons' has always marveled me.

I love admiring those senseless acrylic paintings where it's just a bunch of random colors all swatched together into this gorgeous array of mystique - the ones that have the raised textures and the character of a masterpiece. While I can never really come to the same thematic conclusions as those fancy art critiques, I do, however, have a deep appreciation for the details in each artists' work.

Stroke, by stroke, i love to dissect the art with thoughts like; "man, what was that artist thinking?" or "wow... i never would have imagined to do that." ...And with my eyes in a never ending maze of wonder, gazing at a canvas in such rich of detail that you would think the iPhone 7 took that picture, I will literally dig and dig, obsessively searching for hidden themes like a paleontologist on a quest for fossils. It's kind of like a twisted, colorful crossword puzzle.

I love the details.

You see, I love the cracks in the paint and the overlapping of colors that just oh so perfectly compliment each other - colors you never would have thought would have worked good together. I love the messiness yet divine-like perfection of the abstract. I love the way every single little detail matters to make the art what it is.

Details are the difference between a flower and a rose. Both beautiful, but the details set the rose apart from the rest of the flowers. And I just love that oh so much. But, even more, I love the way that this doesn't just apply to lumps of clay or blank canvases. This applies to our lives. This applies to us. We are the art.

We are moldable, impressionable, resilient works of art whose creator delights in the fearful and wonderful way in which the abstractness of our lives depict His beauty. We are those senseless acrylic paintings in the hands of a dedicated artist who loves His work. We are the lumps of clay ready to molded by the hands of a potter. We are the cracks in the paint and the overlapping of complimentary colors. We are the art.

And really, this all sounds so amazing reading and thinking about it, right? But if we're being honest, it's so hard to stay completely focused on Him, or even to just stay focused on the fact that we're art. I mess up all of the time. I probably do more wrong than I could ever do right... I'm so imperfect. You don't even have to get very close to this supposed piece of "art" to be able to tell that. I'm not the easiest to work with. I'm a broken, dirty, tattered, extremely worn canvas... and even AFTER being cleansed and made new, I still make mistakes. Artists make mistakes.

But God...

God is in the details of our artwork. And God does not make mistakes. You see, our creator is like no other artist; He's like no ordinary potter. Other artists start on a blank canvas and mess up, then carefully craft their botched stroke into this fancy version of "fake it till ya make it". But God, He takes an already used, tattered, dirty canvas and turns it into a masterpiece. He doesn't just paint over the mess in attempt to smooth the faults. He uses every rip, tear, and blood stained piece to create a work of art like you could have never imagined. He's in the details, even the ones that seem small and unnoticeable - a stranger's kindness in the drive through line, your favorite song on the radio as soon as you start the car, a loving dog when you feel lonely, or even rest after a week of sleepless nights.

He's there... in them all.

Honestly, it's not going to be easy. When the detailing begins to scrape the pieces of you you've been holding onto for so long, it's going to hurt. When the whittling away and the remolding comes, it's going to expose the ugliest of ugly blemishes and imperfections, but... just remember that He's printing a logo, a seal on your soul so beautifully impactful that the lives around you will be changed forever. He's in the presence of broken families, whispering "come near". He's in the depressiveness of the grieving hearts, speaking "I'm here". He uses every single piece you thought was only worthy to throw out, in order to advance His kingdom. The strokes you make and steps you take are not always going to be perfectly crafted, but when placed in His hands, they will always be perfectly purposeful. Every scar, hurt, and experience is all uniquely our own. But it's the details of our lives that make His work in us so impactful - it's the details that sets us apart. So let them be details that depict His loving, purposeful artistry.

After all... that is what truly makes us art.

"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." - Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)