The Healing Brush

I frequently use Photoshop to crop and adjust the light levels of pictures I take indoors. I have never spent any time trying to really learn how to use the software, so my abilities are very limited. As I was uploading the picture of the garage toys to yesterday's post, I wondered if I could do anything about the bleach stain on the garage floor, as it was very distracting. As I toyed with the program and experimented, I found a miraculous button. It is called the "Healing Brush."

With a couple of clicks of my mouse, it took this stain

(exhibit A for what happens when you attempt to mop the garage with a bathroom cleaner) and turned it into this. Literally, it worked this magic in under 10 seconds. Wow, what I could do with a healing brush in real life! I could repair the damage to my garage floor. Those stains on my carpet? Healing brush! Unwieldy eyebrows? Forget the hot wax, get me a healing brush!

Isn't this Photoshop mentality such a gateway to sinful thinking? When I struggle with discontent, it is generally rooted in comparison. Why can't I look like that? Or have a house as together and organized as a pictorial in Real Simple magazine? The Spirit reminds me of a simple truth: That is not real life. Real life is messy...and often gloriously so! Some of the messiest, least picture perfect parts of my life have been THE VERY THINGS that God has used to shape my life for His Glory. Romans 8:28, anyone?

Life has its blemishes. They are the process by which we are sanctified by our Mighty God. I was reminded today of some lyrics of my old friend, Allen Levi.

Things that Make the Story Mine....
I've been working on a 32* year story. I've been starring in a role that's unrehearsed. Though some scenes have been sweet, others have been gory, but I'm wiser now than at the very first.

Between my "once upon a time" and my "happily ever after," no stunt man steps on stage to take my falls. No one else can cry my tears or laugh my laughter. The part gets played by me or not at all.

And I wish sometimes that I could rewrite some chapters, some paragraphs, some passages, some lines. But it's those very parts that I would change, those lines I'd cut, those scenes that I'd refine...Those things that I'd remove are the things that make the story mine.

We serve a Sovereign God who has a purpose for our lives...even the messy parts. He also happens to have the ultimate, eternal Healing Brush.

"They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you're named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls."

I Peter 2:24 (The Message)

Amen!