A Blank Wall

Nobody likes a blank wall. Blank walls are boring. Blank walls are nothing.

Except…

A blank wall can be turned in to anything. A blank wall is waiting for the artist to come in and turn it in to something beautiful and unique.

A blank wall doesn’t have to stay a blank wall.

It can become something great.

What if we all start out as blank walls… we pick up the paintbrush and begin to add colors here and there, designing the wall the way we want it to look.

Keep in mind that behind all the bright colors there is nothing. It’s just a blank wall.

But we keep painting. And somewhere in our childlike minds we think that maybe if we pick the right colors and paint the right shapes, we’ll be able to make our wall so interesting and wonderful that people will stand in awe, just soaking in the glorious painting we created.

But, alas, no, that is not the way it works.

Do you remember when you were little and your mom sat you down at the table and gave you the paper and the finger paints? And you didn’t understand that the more colors you used, the more brown the paper became. And the messier your hands became. And then you got to the point where you looked at your mom and held up your hands and said “I’m done” with a slightly disgusted look on your face.

That, is a little closer to the way it works.

So, the more painting and striving we do, the more brown our wall becomes. In fact, a blank wall becomes almost appealing.

We hold up our hands in surrender and say “I’m done” with a slightly disgusted look on our face.

Then God comes in and lovingly wipes are hands clean. And covers our horrifying wall in a coat of fresh white paint.

And we are left standing in front of the wall, tempted to start painting again. Because blank walls are not only boring, they’re also vulnerable.

God picks up His paintbrush and slowly, oh so slowly, begins to paint. After staring at it for hours you still cannot guess what He could possibly be painting.

And you get tired of waiting, so you sneak over to the corner and begin to paint a little, just on the edge of the wall. 

But you quickly get carried away and before you know it you’ve painted half the wall again.

What you didn’t realize is that while you were painting away, God was coming behind you with the white paint.

Every time you attempted to paint, God erased it.

Every time you started to plan your life the way you wanted it to go, God erased it.

Not out of spite. Not with the intention of making you miserable.

Out of love.

Because He can see further down the road then we can. And He knows what is best for us.

So, really, there is nothing left for us to do but sit in front of the blank wall and wait.

Wait for the Master to create a masterpiece.

And so, if we are blank walls, doesn’t that mean that we, eventually, will be a masterpiece?