Who's the Real Artist?

I can't draw. Seriously.

I want to be able to draw. I'd love to be able to sketch out some amazingly shaded...something...

Heck, if I could make a freaking stick figure I'd be ecstatic.

But it's no use.

When I think about drawing something, I have this beautiful image in my head of what it will look like. So I get excited and pull out a piece of paper and pencil. A nice sharp, pencil that will smoothly trace the image in my mind onto this perfect white piece of paper.

Except that's not what happens. Instead, its almost as if my brain and my hand are on completely different wavelengths.

As my hand begins to form lines and curves on the paper, my brain starts screaming "What are you doing?? That's not what I want you to draw!" But my hand keeps going, completely oblivious to the protests from my brain.

So when I step back and look at my creation, it merely looks like some kid went crazy with the Crayolas.

Devastating, I tell you.

I have to laugh when I think of how bad an artist I am when it comes to my life, too.

Sometimes I wonder if God is thinking, "What are you doing?! That's not what I want you to draw!" as he watches my actions and some of the choices I make.

It's like I take the pencil from Him and think I can draw something better than He can draw for me.

Except, when I start, all that comes out is this mess of scribbles and lines that don't make sense to anyone. Not even Picasso.

What I'm learning, though, is that God is a much better artist than I am. Not only that, He also carries the eraser to clean up my mistakes...

...To redirect and redefine the lines that have been scribbled on His canvas. He can turn them around and shape them into the art that He imagined to begin with.

But I have to give Him back the pencil first. After all, who's the real artist?

The one who paints the sunrise every morning and the sunset every evening? Or the one who struggles to make a stick figure recognizable?

I should think the answer would be obvious.

"This is what the Lord, your Redeemer and Creator, says, 'I am the Lord, who made all things, I alone stretched out the heavens. Who was with me when I made the earth?...I am the First and the Last...before me no other god was formed, nor will there be one after me." ~ Isaiah 44:24, 6, 43:10