The canvas wasn’t blank. It had a painting on it, that I had grown to dislike. It was mediocre, at best, from a time when I didn’t trust my ability nor what God was doing in me. So when God told me to clear the canvas, I was confused. I thought he meant to cover it. No, He meant to remove it. It took a large bottle of rubbing alcohol and a lot of elbow grease, but it got done.
As I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the canvas, God began to speak to me about how my sins are washed away. As I scrubbed I smiled. Then God talked to me about the work it took to make it happen. How Jesus labored, so that we could be cleansed. The fasting, the prayers, the walking (and going) and the temptation He had to resist, so that we could be redeemed. With every scrub, God showed me an example. As I excitedly washed paint from a canvas, eager to transform it into something new, so does the blood of Jesus wash us. Transforming us into something.
2 Corinthians “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
So now we move forward to look at this now blank canvas. God began to talk to me through Exodus 13:21. The children of Israel had just crossed the red sea after leaving Egypt. They were camped on the edge of the wilderness. That was when the Lord appeared before them as pillar of cloud by day (to protect them) and a pillar of fire by night (for light and warmth). And so god went before the children of Israel in the manner.
God had me paint the mountains, the grey clouds and desert land. Then he had me paint His presence as pillar of fire. A beacon of light and a reminder that he goes before us.
And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night
Exodus 13:21
