The Art Project

Children love to draw.
When they begin coloring, their pictures are monochromatic.
Eventually, their pictures become an explosion of color.

When children first begin to draw people, they resemble Mr. Potato Head.
A circle for a head and two vertical lines for legs.
Eventually, two lines, depicting arms, come out of the circle
I often wondered if that is why Mr. Potato Head has been such a popular toy.
It mimics the way children draw the human form.

I was never an artist.
I painted pictures with words…not crayons.
I did like to draw as a child.

I remember having wonderful coloring pages of dolls from different eras.
They came in a decorative box.
Each doll was printed on heavy paper.
I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to color in the lines and make the dolls look real.

I had an art project in school that I have never forgotten.

We were each given a piece of construction paper.
We were told to fold it in half lengthwise.
Along the right side of the crease, we were to write our names.
We could take up the whole paper…in fact we were encouraged to do so.

Then we had to imagine that the crease was a mirror.
We had to look into the “mirror” and draw what we saw.
We had to draw the mirror image of our name.

Some people printed their names…some wrote in cursive.
The result was the same.
When completed, you had your name and the mirror image of your name on the paper.

We were told to hold the paper up and look at our names.
They inevitably made a shape.
Depending on what shape you saw, you added detail to finish the picture.
In the end, the name faded into the background and the new shape remained.

My full name is Regina.
I followed the instructions and held my paper up when I was finished.
The shape of my name looked like a Christmas tree.
It was so much fun to decorate my name with ornaments and garland.
The name became the trunk and the branches were drawn all around it.

Some people couldn’t “see” the mirror image of their name.
The teacher had little hand mirrors to put in the paper crease to help them.

I taught my children how to do this art project when they were younger.
They had so much fun seeing the shape of their name.

But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? (Romans 9:20, 21)

Our Potter God formed us…each of us unique…each of us in His image.
We are God’s art project.
Our names are written on the crease of God’s paper.
We struggle…we try to see the mirror image of our name.

We can’t discern it.
Nothing fits.
We see a shape, but when embellished, it looks garish and out of place.
We see another shape, but we can’t seem to do anything with it.

Finally, we sit back.
We acquiesce.

You are the Potter.
The clay of our lives is in Your hands.

Suddenly, He molds…He shapes.
He punches down the clay and begins a section again.
He stretches…He forms.
Finished.

We look at the mirror image of our name.
Detail was added to finish the picture.
Our name fades into the background and the new name remains.
JESUS.

Our Potter God molded us and shaped us to look like His Son.
Not garish…or out of place.
Beautiful.
Acceptable.
Unique.

A Masterpiece…that looks like Him.