Updated Thursday, April 24, 2008

Formations lesson for May 11: The Presence of Christ

By R. Kevin Johnson

Focal Passage: John 15

I was at a Christian retreat center with friends on a beautiful spring day. The group broke for an hour to gather ourselves and to pray silently on the riverside campus.

When we came back together, one of my colleagues named Tina was holding several flowers that she had found while we were on break.

When questioned about her time my friend, who is an artist, said, "I found this one flower on the ground and realized that it had fallen from the fruit tree over my head." I thought to myself, "what a beautiful gift of nature," but then it occurred to me that the place from which the flower fell would never be fruitful and it made me kind of sad.

Tina continued, "Then I began to wonder if maybe there wasn't another way that the bloom in my hand could bear fruit."

She held open her journal for everyone to see. The page before us revealed colors of striking brilliance. In a moment of inspiration, Tina gathered many different colored flowers and leaves. She pressed them into her book until they became paint on a canvas. Then she gathered dirt from the ground and added earth tones to her masterpiece. The resulting image caused those gathered around her to gasp in delight at the beauty.

There was a lesson in this moment that made me sit and ponder. Just an hour before, those flowers were lying on the ground outside our window withering and dying. Then an artist came along, salvaged the throwaway material, and painted a picture of loveliness.

Each of us is similarly blessed. We are throwaway material not worthy of salvage. However, when we choose to abide in Christ, our lives become the Master Artist's material. God uses us in ways that we never imagine to paint the picture of grace and truth and peace and light.

When our picture is revealed to the world, we show God's beauty and it causes others to marvel at the blessed work of the Creator. We receive new life as we abide in the work of Christ. We inspire others with the love of the Father. We are separated from the fallen world as we dwell in the presence of God. We are the very work of His hand.

As we journey through this mortal life, may we all allow ourselves to be paint on the canvas of the Lord.