Pictures and Seasons
When I sat down in the classroom, a large sheet of white paper spread across the desk in front of me. I readied my pen for an extensive assignment regarding the nursing process. Instead, my professor handed out colorful markers and instructed us to draw a picture. Really? How funny! I thought to myself. We are in nursing school and we are drawing pictures!
"I want you to draw a picture of how you have changed since entering nursing school." I heard lids popping off and markers squeaking across paper. I just sat there quietly, not because I didn't know how I had changed, but because I didn't know how to use a crayola marker to express it.
With time ticking away, I eventually started drawing a nurse in the center of my page. Dressed in scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck, she represented the preparation I have gained as a nursing student. I feel like a real nurse now more than ever before. Her cartoon smile was way too big for her face, but that is because the joy that I have found exceeds what my heart can hold. I drew and oversized heart over her uniform to signify how much my heart has grown in compassion and care.
Above her head, I illustrated the world with a cross on top. God has used this season of my life to expand my heart for the world. Greater than my nursing career is my desire to speak boldly of God's good news through mission work. And even bigger than my desire for mission work is the image of the cross and the message that is represents - a message of grace and love for all the nations of the world through the amazing sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Also above her head, I drew a picture of me and God, hand in hand. I could have drawn God up in heaven reaching down to help me through nursing school, but God has taught me that my relationship with Him is not distant, but intimate, side-by-side, and hand in hand.
If you could draw a picture, what would you draw? How has God transformed you over the past year or so of your life? Our God is an author who writes stories of our lives in chapters and verses. We pass through these chapters like seasons of life. Just like the leaves on the trees change with each passing season, so we are transformed in the seasons of our lives.
What I have come to believe is this: truly knowing Christ transforms you.
He is the Potter, molding us into His image.
He is the Author, writing new plots and climaxes in our faith.
He is the Creator, constantly creating a new work inside of us.
He is the Gardener, pruning and fertilizing us so that we produce fruit.
He is the Sanctifyer, gently (and sometimes dramatically) shaping us into who He made us to be, into the likeness of His Son, Jesus.
Take a moment within your heart to paint a picture of yourself after this past season of life, and then thank the Artist for the masterpiece in progress. Now as winter fades and the beauty of spring comes to life before our eyes, know that God is doing the same thing in you. It is a new year, a new semester, a new season. He promises to finish the work that He began. This season, He will add new strokes to the canvas and new words to the chapter. You are a masterpiece.
"I want you to draw a picture of how you have changed since entering nursing school." I heard lids popping off and markers squeaking across paper. I just sat there quietly, not because I didn't know how I had changed, but because I didn't know how to use a crayola marker to express it.
With time ticking away, I eventually started drawing a nurse in the center of my page. Dressed in scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck, she represented the preparation I have gained as a nursing student. I feel like a real nurse now more than ever before. Her cartoon smile was way too big for her face, but that is because the joy that I have found exceeds what my heart can hold. I drew and oversized heart over her uniform to signify how much my heart has grown in compassion and care.
Above her head, I illustrated the world with a cross on top. God has used this season of my life to expand my heart for the world. Greater than my nursing career is my desire to speak boldly of God's good news through mission work. And even bigger than my desire for mission work is the image of the cross and the message that is represents - a message of grace and love for all the nations of the world through the amazing sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Also above her head, I drew a picture of me and God, hand in hand. I could have drawn God up in heaven reaching down to help me through nursing school, but God has taught me that my relationship with Him is not distant, but intimate, side-by-side, and hand in hand.
If you could draw a picture, what would you draw? How has God transformed you over the past year or so of your life? Our God is an author who writes stories of our lives in chapters and verses. We pass through these chapters like seasons of life. Just like the leaves on the trees change with each passing season, so we are transformed in the seasons of our lives.
What I have come to believe is this: truly knowing Christ transforms you.
He is the Potter, molding us into His image.
He is the Author, writing new plots and climaxes in our faith.
He is the Creator, constantly creating a new work inside of us.
He is the Gardener, pruning and fertilizing us so that we produce fruit.
He is the Sanctifyer, gently (and sometimes dramatically) shaping us into who He made us to be, into the likeness of His Son, Jesus.
Take a moment within your heart to paint a picture of yourself after this past season of life, and then thank the Artist for the masterpiece in progress. Now as winter fades and the beauty of spring comes to life before our eyes, know that God is doing the same thing in you. It is a new year, a new semester, a new season. He promises to finish the work that He began. This season, He will add new strokes to the canvas and new words to the chapter. You are a masterpiece.
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