What About My Mistakes?

What about My Mistakes?

[The Lord] will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair.

Isaiah 61:3

“There’s no such thing as a mistake in drawing,” Melissa’s elementary art teacher told the class. “So don’t try to erase all your blunders. Every squiggly line, every misplaced circle or splotch of color can be made into something creative and new.” Then with a few skillful strokes of her paintbrush, she showed the children how to change what looked like a messed-up painting into a work of art.

Since then, there have been lots of splotched and squiggled canvases in Melissa’s life: mistakes and messes of her own making or pain because of the mistakes of others. Sometimes she’s tempted to sink into regret and think, If only I could erase that. . . . If only it hadn’t happened, my life would be so much better. But in those times, she hears God remind her that although he doesn’t erase history, he can use even our individual mistakes to create something beautiful if we bring all the squiggled lines and broken pieces of our lives to him, admit our failures, and ask for his help.

Can God really change something ugly or broken into something beautiful? There’s no sin, mistake, or heartache he can’t redeem if we’ll give it to him. We may see only the sorrow or crisis in our lives or feel the ache of defeat, but as today’s verse tells us, he can bring amazing beauty out of a heap of ashes. If an earthly artist can save a botched drawing and turn it into a lovely piece of art, how much more can God’s love redeem every mistake in our lives! Hurts and losses in our own lives become bridges that enable us to reach out and comfort others. Dreams that have died are brought to new life. And weaknesses become blessings because they draw us closer to our Creator.

Can God create something beautiful out of our mistakes? He specializes in that kind of art. —CHERI

Father, how grateful I am that you can bring beauty out of ashes, something good out of the mistakes I have made. I bring them to you, trusting you to be the glue in my life, to mend and heal my heart and soul, and to produce by your love and grace something beautiful.

The goodness of God knows how to use our disordered wishes and actions, often lovingly turning them to our advantage while always preserving the beauty of his order. —BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX (1090–1153), FRENCH CLERGYMAN