“Resilience is really about the life of God flowing into us and remaking us, renewing us, transforming us, and transfiguring all of the broken pieces of our lives into something that is whole, something that reflects God.” – Adam Bucko

I learned something important recently when I went to a painting class with my daughters and granddaughter: If you accidentally get a black spot of paint in your blue sky, it’s no problem according to our instructor. Don’t give up. Don’t try to erase it. Don’t despair. Just make it into a bird!

So, I have to ask: Is there a smudge in your life? Something you never saw coming and now have to adjust to? Or something you regret in the recent or far distant past? Or something someone else did to you that you’re having a hard time forgiving? And all you can see is that black spot.

Don’t give up. Don’t try to erase it. Don’t despair. Let the Master Painter incorporate it into his perfect plan. Hand him the brush. He can make it into something that fits into the picture he has been painting all along.

I call that resilience. We don’t give up, but we allow God to remake us, as the quote above says, into something that reflects him. We see the smudge. He sees the bird and the beauty and life it will add to the picture. I imagined what he might be painting for me now, and saw an awesome flock of birds!

The picture improves when we take our smudges, mistakes, accidents, or pain to him and then stand back and watch in amazement at what he will do.

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” – 2 Corinthians 3:18a