A Happy Accident

When you were growing up, did you ever catch an episode of The Joy of Painting on PBS with Bob Ross? Throughout each episode, Bob would spend his time painting on a blank canvas while teaching the viewers how to paint as an artist would. Many would follow along with Bob on this whimsical journey through the world of painting. Inevitably, we novice artists wouldn’t do it exactly as our host did. We’d smear, dot, and dribble paint in all the places it didn’t belong. Little things, but to us, it ruined the painting. This stroke was too hard. I put too much paint there. That color doesn’t match. Our natural instinct is to give up. To throw away the piece and start over next week when the program comes on again. However, throughout each episode, Bob would remind everyone that when it came to art, there were no mistakes. Just happy little accidents. It was a chance to create something beautiful out of what once seemed ruined. He would remind us that even if a brush stroke was off, we just needed to keep creating until something beautiful came out of it.

And isn’t that a picture of our own lives. Sometimes the road leads off in the wrong direction. We get distracted and miss a step. We make plans that lead us somewhere we didn’t want to be. Or maybe something happened that we didn’t expect. Some sort of pain or heartache that just doesn’t seem to let up. And we end up feeling broken, battered, and beaten down. Like we can’t do this anymore and we’re just confused about how we got here. It can be exhausting.

But there is good news today. You may feel like a mistake. You may feel broken. You may be hurting and scared. But God has better things for you today. The prophet Jeremiah shared this message from the Lord to the people of Israel. Jeremiah saw in a vision that he went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel (Jeremiah 18:3-6 NIV).

The road may be rocky. You may be marred up from the journey. But the joy of the day is that God is still shaping you as seems best to him. Stand firm in your faith and remember that humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps (Proverbs 16:9 NIV). He knows the way and He’s shaping you for the good plans He’s making.