Have you ever stopped to look at a paint brush before? It’s a piece of wood or plastic with bristles at the top of it. Some paint brushes are shaped to allow the artist to hold it and use it in various ways, like a pencil to compose a letter, or a baton used by a music director to conduct his orchestra. No matter how the artist chooses to use his tool the purpose of it remains the same.
The heads of bristles can be found in various shapes, sizes, and materials. Some bristles are skinny, long, short, fat, fanned and pointed. Some are made from natural hairs such as sable, squirrel, hog, camel, ox, pony or goat, while some are made of synthetic fibers.
Every type of brush and bristle head is created so the artist can vary his technique and use of materials. Depending upon his brush he can create art that has broad soft strokes that replicate scenes from a blue, Spring sky full of airy clouds that look more like cotton balls pulled apart, or robust scenes of the ocean’s tide rolling in. The ripples in the water’s wave and the foam on its crest are almost 3-D images. A brush can capture the finer details such as the laugh lines in a grandmother’s eyes as she smiles joyfully at the activity of grandchildren in her care.
Though these paint brushes come in varying shapes, sizes and fabrics, they were all created and designed to do one thing-to be the instrument that the artist uses to create a masterpiece.
Oh, some of the masterpieces that have been created over time. Claude Monet’s Water Lilies. Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night. Leonardo da Vinci’s The Mona Lisa. The famous Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo. All of these artists are well known names and all of these masterpieces are familiar to us.
What about the masterpiece that hangs on our refrigerator from our preschooler who proudly painted a watered down green dinosaur eating watered down green leaves off of a watered down brown tree? A masterpiece in our eyes.
It is with the instrument in the artist’s hand that a masterpiece is created for all to admire.
I am one of God’s masterpieces and so are you.
We are also one of God’s paint brushes he uses to create beautiful masterpieces with our lives.
Now the last I checked I wasn’t created out of wood or plastic but I know I was created with love, woven in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13) for the glory of God (Isaiah 43:7). The bristles at the top of my head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30, Luke 12:7). He has a plan and purpose for my life (Jeremiah 29:11, Ephesians 2:10) and yours.
May we choose today to allow the Master Artist to use His tools to create masterpieces for all the world to admire.