I have a lot of artistic types in my friends and family, and I am one also.  I have crocheted since I was 12, and my heart is happiest in the yarn aisle of Hobby Lobby contemplating all the wonderful color choices and how I can blend them together!  However, many artistic people suffer from the same disease..not always knowing when a work is done.

My mom, who is a painter, actually gave a painting away once, because everytime she passed it in her hallway, she took it down to “fix” something!  I have friends who have added “just a pinch more” to a recipe, only to end up with a muddled taste.  And a cake baking contest I used to watch always had one baker who would not know when to quit decorating, leading to an overdecorated, eye hurting design.  And we all know that one woman who has a ring on every finger, all in different shapes and colors!

Our lives are also works of art…uniquely planned and created by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  And unlike us, He always knows just which colors to use, design to make, AND He knows when each of His masterpieces is finished.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, our community suffered an unimaginable tragedy when we list five beautiful young lives to a fire.  They lived together, and died together.  The tragedy was compounded even further when it was found out that the person who “escaped” the fire, was actually the one who shot and killed all of them, then set the fire to cover the evidence. All of the victims were age 20-22, and all of them were friends with their killer….an unbelievably horrible event that we will never fully understand. Worlds were turned upside down as family members were contacted at church and other places, asking them to “just come home now”.  As the word quickly spread, the question of WHY began to spread with it..with no solid answers.

And yet.  I just stated that our God is always perfect in His work..He always knows when His masterpieces are done.  In fact, He even put this verse in the mind of David to affirm it:  “Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them” Psalm 139:16  Because God does not make mistakes, when each one of our five young adults were conceived, they were all assigned the same day that their masterpiece would be completed. 

That is SO hard to understand! Like my Mom, we would have continued to add brushstrokes..we would have painted in wives and husbands, children and families, great accomplishments and careers.  We would have added rocking chairs on porches, where lives would have peacefully ended in ripe old age.  We would NEVER have stopped painting so soon!

And yet.  If we are true believers, bought with the blood of Jesus, we must totally accept that He sees the whole picture..that He has a plan we cannot see…and that His knowledge and timing are perfect. It doesn’t make it easier, it doesn’t take away the pain and sorrow, and it doesn’t explain things.  But it can provide comfort when five beautiful people are ripped out of our presence, and we are left behind to carry on.  May God continue that comfort as we face the days ahead together.