"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed,
you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted
in the sea,' and it will obey you."
Luke 17:6
So last night, I had a girls' night. We went to one of those painting classes where you take your own beverages and someone teaches you how to paint a simple picture. I was excited. I am not one of those amazing artists that can transform a piece of paper into a masterful drawing of your long lost pet with just a pencil, but I can copy what someone else does with the best average of them. Now I have several of the former in my family, but as I have said before, I did not get that gene. I was pretty proud of myself though. The instructor even said such things to me as "you're a natural with your brush strokes", "I like your technique better than the technique we used for our flowers", and "that's amazing" regarding my finished project. Yes, I left that place with my head held pretty high. I chalked it up to the fact that I must have learned to paint from all those hours spent watching my grandmother paint or the Saturday mornings I spent watching the dynamics of her and my grandfather watching Bob Ross together (which was hilarious by the way). Yes, I was a master painter which I learned from pure osmosis. When I got home, I went immediately to one of my grandmother's paintings to compare. At that moment, I realized that the instructor for the class had the gift of encouragement. Let's just say I was brought back to reality. My painting looked like a kindergartner's color drawing compared to hers. Not that it is a competition….because if it is I surrender…but it is always good to be brought down a few hundred notches. Here see for yourself….
This one is mine…..
I think, however, the difference in the quality of my and my grandmother's paintings are pretty analogous to a comparison of our faith. As amazing as she is as an artist, she is a gazillion times more amazing as a Christian woman. Good thing God loves us all the same. In high school, I would go by her home every morning to give my cousin a ride to school. Every morning, without fail, there sat her Bible open on her dining room table with paints and canvases scattered all around it. She did it because that is the way she lives. I have my doubts she thought to herself "let me get my Bible out so Angel will see that I am reading it when she comes over". She loves the Word of God, and it is the keystone to her life.
How do I know this? It's not from the lectures she loves to give….because she does LOVE to lecture. It is from the way she lives her life. Her relationship with Christ doesn't stop when she gets up from the church pew. She doesn't waste her time telling you what you should or shouldn't do (unless you are lucky enough to call her Gran and then she does). She spends her time in the trenches. She rolls up her sleeves, laces up her shoes and gets to work. She has had a fairly hard life. She was one of six girls to a single mom during the Depression. If you ask her how they made it, she would tell you God provided for them after her father passed away through the people in the community. Because, He is God, and that is what He does. He provides. When I say, I have seen her give away her last dime. I am not exaggerating. I have. I have also started to lecture her about "good stewardship" and "God wants you to take care of yourself" when she does this. Her reply has always been, "I'm not worried; I'll sell a painting". Guess what, she always does. God knew WAAYY back in my childhood that I needed this example. He knew that one day, I would be married to a student with two young kids, and that we would barely have two dimes to rub together. That example gave me peace in knowing that God would take care of us during that phase of life and during other struggles during our current and future phases.
She taught me that being a Christian doesn't mean that you sit back and make a list of what others are doing wrong. We ALL do things wrong. That is why we have grace. It is simply our job to love and serve. Since my grandfather has passed away, she has been telling me stories of when they were newly married. She told me that she used to give hitchhikers rides all the time. Pa found out and quickly put a stop to it. Those of us that know her are not surprised by this. I have seen her walk up to countless homeless people and give them food. I have also walked into her home numerous times to see people sleeping on her couch that "didn't have anywhere else to go". Yes, she is that amazing. No, she is not allowed to do that anymore (as much as any of us can disallow her from doing anything).
So it was no surprise to me, that of all the people I told I was going to China to serve is an orphanage, she didn't blink. She said that it sounded like a good idea and the right thing to do. She didn't ask if it would be safe. At least, not to me. She gets IT. She gets the role of Christians in the world. Not what the crazies claim in the name of Christ, but what Christ claimed in the name of His Father. Service. Washing of feet. Love. Faith. Peace that surpasses all understanding. And as she is soooo rightly named…Grace.
