Painting God's Masterpiece Part 1 Series

I went to bed the other night thinking about this sermon and what God was telling me. Early the next morning I had a dream. In the dream I was talking to some family members and looking at a picture of my father when he was younger. In the picture with my father were my mother and some other people that I did not recognize. As I stared at the photo remembering that my father was not in heaven with God, he suddenly appeared next to me. So I looked at him, he was younger and had a longer than I remember dark black hair. He smiled at me and I told him that he looked good. Because I knew he was already in heaven, I asked him if he missed us – his children. His answer surprised me. This is what he said with a bright smile on his face, “Rodney, I do not miss any of you and you know what, I do not miss the old me either.” After he said that he smiled and disappeared and I woke up crying. In the dream my father did not miss the man he was on earth – the one who sometimes doubted what God was doing in his life. He did not miss that man of the flesh who was accustomed to missing the mark, being sick and not ever really getting to that image that God had of him. He missed none of that because where he was now, he knew exactly who he was. As I laid there in bed thinking about the dream God spoke the following in my spirit. He said, “When people get here in my presence, they know who they are, they do not have an identity crisis for they see exactly who they are in Me.” After He spoke this to me I thought how we should live here on earth. We do not need to wonder who we are or what God will do for us. That is why Jesus was sent so that we could know who we are and we would not have to wonder about what God has done within us. We would not have to worry about the image that He has imprinted for us to fulfill. Leonardo was extremely meticulous in everything he did, especially as he painted the Mona Lisa. Now if he was that meticulous, think about how meticulous God was when He created you and me. Think about the fact that we are “His workmanship” or “His work of art.” He has given us everything we need to conform to the image that was His original intention. We should not wait until we get to heaven to realize our real identity and what it means to carry His image within us. When we begin to recognize this, then we can begin the process of bringing God’s image of us to the canvas of our life. So if our lives represent a canvas where God has placed an image for us to bring to life, how do we do that? How important is the image? Again, let’s go back to the basics.

I. The Power of an Image

When God created man, He had an image in His mind as to what man would look like and ultimately become. The Bible tells us that we were created in His image. Having an image of something is a powerful thing as it brings about hope, something I will get to later in the series. Let me give you an example of an image, one that we can all understand. I have had the opportunity to help my wife paint rooms in our home on several occasions. I do not get to do it often because I do not do it right as I am too messy. After allowing me several tryouts, she now prefers to do it herself because she would have to redo what I did anyway, which is fine with me since I hate painting. But here’s my point, my wife when she looks at a room, she visualizes what the room should look like and the color she wants. Once she has this image, she goes to the supply store and buys a board, or piece of sheet rock, so she can test the paint out before she puts it on the wall in the house. This process allows her to see if the paint, after it is to the actual wall, will look like what is in her mind – what she has envisioned. This is not a simple process and I just sit back and watch as she brings in pint after pint after pint of test paint to see if it will work. I do not give an opinion because remember, the image is in her head, not mine, so since I cannot know what she is trying to accomplish, my opinions does not get her closer to her goal. Even when she asks my opinion I do not have one, because I recognize that the image is in her head, not mine. You see, for me oftentimes the shades look the same, but she can see the subtle differences and she knows exactly what color she wants on the wall. How does she know this? She knows this because she has already painted the room in her mind and the image that is in her mind is what she is now trying to bring into reality in the room that she is painting. Now I on the other hand am not so talented. I can see in my mind what I want, but I cannot see the big picture when it comes to painting. For example, when I decided to paint my office I “thought” I wanted a deep blue. Without any help from Nikki, I went to the paint store and purchased a pint of the blue paint that I “thought” I wanted on my office walls. When I test painted my wall, I liked the color – although it was bright – I still liked it. When Nikki got home, I proudly asked her what she thought. Now remember, it was my office and I was taking charge – I was going to paint it the color I wanted. I was very pleased with myself that I followed her lead and “tested” the color. When I saw it on the wall, I was happy. So here I am, presenting it to my beautiful wife. Nikki looked at the color, smiled, and said that the color would be great if my office was a child’s room. She did not ridicule me or anything, but for those of you who have been in my office recently, you know that it is painted a nice hunter green that I also picked out because I did not want a child’s room for an office. When I had an image of the blue in my mind, I was not visualizing a child’s room; I was seeing a business office. When Nikki saw the blue, the image that presented in her mind was a child’s room and it did not take much for her to get that image into my head so my office is now painted a nice, non-child-like hunter green.