The Masterpieces You Might Be Missing

As a 30 year old millennial girlie, this will probably not surprise you, but I LOVE going out to get a coffee from a cute coffee shop. Whenever I’m in the Quad Cities, I always stop at my favorite place, 392, and pick up a little drinky-drink. Usually, I order ahead and go through the drive through to pick it up because I always have the littles in tow, and getting them out of the car is a no from me. However there was one day that the drive through line was long, so I decided to go inside to get my order. As I walked up to the pickup counter, the barista was putting the lid on my coffee and I noticed there was latte art on top. It was a cute little heart, and I wondered if they always added latte art on to-go orders. All those times I grabbed my coffee from the drive through, I’d never thought to open the lid to check. It’s possible, that each time I got my coffee, there was beautiful latte art hidden just under the lid, and I never knew.

It made me think about how God works in our lives. He is this incredible artist creating masterpiece after masterpiece and sometimes we completely miss the artwork even though it’s right there. We might miss God’s beauty because we’re too busy rushing through our day. We might miss it because we’re too focused on all the negative things happening in our life. And sometimes, we don’t see God’s art because He’s working behind the scenes and He’s not ready to reveal the full masterpiece yet.

Regardless of the reasons why we might miss God’s artwork, He’s creating beauty whether we see it or not. It’s who He is, it’s what He does, and it isn’t dependent on our ability or desire to notice it. When we recognize this, we’d be silly not to be more intentional in looking for His artwork each day. His beautiful designs are constantly on display in things like the beautiful sky, in a hug from a best friend, in our kid’s smile, or in our dog’s cuddles. His work is also on display when we commit our lives to Christ, use the gifts God has given us to glorify Him, and chase after Him with everything we have. The list of where to find God’s art is endless!!!!!

And can I just encourage you, if you’re in a season where it’s really hard to find God’s beauty, God promises us it is still there. Even when we go through difficult times, He is still working. We see in the bible over and over again, situations where it looks like God has fled the scene. And then, over and over again, He shows up and shows out, making beauty from ashes in ways better than anyone could ever imagine. Stories like Job, Joseph, the Israelites’ journey out of slavery and through the wilderness, the lives of those Jesus saved through miracles, and literally the entire bible as a whole redemption story, show us that God is ALWAYS creating masterpieces even when, to us, things look ugly. Deuteronomy 31:6 reminds us that “The Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Jesus promises us in Matthew 28:20 that He is always with us, to the end of the age. Just like my latte art that was hidden under the lid, God’s mighty hand is at work even when we cannot see it.

So today, when you finish reading this and get back to your life, I want to invite you to take the lid off your coffee cup and look for God’s glorious art on display. Look in the small things and the big things, and trust that God is working on something beautiful in your life because that’s just what He does.