Trust the Artist: A New Year, A New Canvas

We will soon say goodbye to one year and stand on the threshold of another. For some, the end of a year is filled with cherished memories and gratitude for all that happened. For others, it is an opportunity to say goodbye—and perhaps good riddance—to mistakes, missed opportunities, regrets, disappointments, and difficult experiences.

But regardless of how we feel about the year behind us, one thing is certain: a new year is waiting.

A new year brings new opportunities. A fresh beginning. A chance to try something

different. A chance to learn from what has happened and move forward with renewed hope.

As you look ahead to the new year, what do you see? When you look at the year ahead, what do you envision? Do you see more of the same old routines? The same challenges? The same struggles?

Or can you step back and look at the coming year differently? Can you look at it through the eyes of an artist and see the possibilities?  Seeing What Could Be

Several years ago, my daughter talked me into painting with her. I've always considered myself more of an arts-and-crafts type of person, but I discovered something unexpected when I began doing pour painting. I found it surprisingly relaxing and almost therapeutic. (Pour painting is a fluid, abstract style of painting where colors blend and move across the canvas.) But more importantly, it changed the way I see things.

When I look at a blank canvas now, I don't simply see a white, empty surface. I begin imagining what it could become.

I see colors.

I see movement.

I see possibilities.

I see something beautiful where there is currently nothing but an unfinished surface.

My daughters each have their own artistic gifts. One captures beauty through photography. Another paints and draws. Another takes yarn and macramé cord and turns them into beautiful creations.

Each of them has the ability to look at something ordinary and envision what it could become. And ultimately, that ability comes from their Heavenly Father.

God is an amazing Artist.

Think about creation.

God took dirt—plain, ordinary soil—and formed humanity from it.

Genesis 2:7 says:

"Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

God took something ordinary and created something extraordinary.

Look around at His creation. The stars scattered across the night sky.

The colors of a sunset. The Grand Canyon. A field covered in freshly fallen snow.

Crystal blue ocean waters. Waterfalls. Flowers. Mountains. And an incredible variety of animals, each with unique colors, shapes, abilities, and characteristics.

Creation reminds us that God sees possibilities where we may see nothing.

The Potter and the Clay:

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is found in Jeremiah 18.

God instructed Jeremiah to go to the potter's house. When Jeremiah arrived, he watched the potter working at the wheel.

But something went wrong.

The clay was marred in the potter's hands.

So the potter didn't throw it away.

He didn't decide it was worthless.

He didn't walk away.

Instead, he made it again into another vessel, as seemed good to him.

Then God told Jeremiah:

"As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand."

What a powerful picture of our relationship with God.

The clay doesn't determine what it will become. The potter does.

The clay doesn't always understand the process. The potter does.

And when something goes wrong, the potter doesn't necessarily throw the clay away.

Sometimes he reshapes it. Sometimes he starts over. Sometimes he presses it, stretches it, molds it, and works it until it becomes what he intended.

That is how God works in our lives.

What Do You See When You Look at the Coming Year?

As you stand at the beginning of a new year, imagine that the year ahead is a blank canvas.

What do you see?

Do you see possibility?

Potential?

Opportunity?

Hope?

God's direction?

His provision?

His love and mercy?

Forgiveness?

Restoration?

It is all there waiting to be revealed.

First Corinthians 2:9 reminds us:

"What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—the things God has prepared for those who love him."

We cannot see everything God has prepared for us.

And perhaps that's the point.

If we already knew everything that was going to happen, there would be no need for faith.

God doesn't give us the complete picture. He asks us to trust the Artist.

Do You Trust the Artist?

I know, that's a difficult question.

When I paint, the canvas never questions my choices.

It never says, "Are you sure about that color?"

It never says, "I don't like what you're doing."

It doesn't demand to see the finished product before allowing me to continue.

The canvas simply receives what the artist places upon it.

We struggle with this.

We say we trust God, but then we second-guess Him.

We quote Jeremiah 29:11—"For I know the plans I have for you..."—but then we try to take control of those plans.

We say we believe that all things work together for good, but then exhaust ourselves trying to make everything work out ourselves.

We quote Matthew 19:26—"With God all things are possible"—but sometimes give up when the circumstances become difficult.

We believe God is more than able, but our actions sometimes communicate something very different.

The question isn't whether God is capable. The question is whether we trust Him.

God Hasn't Given Up on You

Perhaps one of the greatest fears some of us carry into a new year is the belief that God has given up on us. Maybe we've made too many mistakes. Maybe we've wasted too many opportunities. Maybe we've failed too many times.

Maybe we believe God has looked at our lives and decided we're a lost cause.

But Jeremiah's potter gives us a different picture.

When the clay was marred, the potter made it again.

God doesn't give up on His creation.

He creates.

He molds.

He reshapes.

He refines.

He restores.

And He continues His work.

Philippians 1:6 gives us this incredible promise:

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

God isn't finished with you.

The unfinished places in your life don't mean you've been abandoned.

The rough edges don't mean you're a failure.

The places that need to be reshaped don't mean you're worthless.

They mean the Artist is still working.

Give God the Canvas

So what will you do with this new year?

Will you simply repeat the patterns of the past?

Will you carry every regret from the previous year into the next one?

Will you continue doing the same things and expecting different results?

Or will you take what you've learned and allow God to use those lessons to shape what comes next?

Perhaps the most important thing we can do at the beginning of a new year is to surrender the canvas.

Give God your plans.

Give Him your dreams.

Give Him your disappointments.

Give Him your failures.

Give Him your relationships.

Give Him your future.

Give Him the parts of your life that you don't understand.

Then trust Him to create something beautiful.

That doesn't mean the coming year will be easy.

There will be challenges.

There will be obstacles.

There will be battles.

There will be unexpected turns.

But there will also be opportunities.

There will be victories.

There will be growth.

There will be moments of grace.

And there will be evidence of God's faithfulness.

The Artist Isn't Finished

As we step into this new year, we don't know exactly what the finished picture will look like.

But we know the Artist.

And that is enough.

God knows what He is doing.

He sees what we cannot see.

He knows what we cannot know.

He understands the beginning, the middle, and the end.

So perhaps the prayer we need at the beginning of this year isn't, "God, make everything happen the way I want."

Perhaps it is: "God, make me willing to trust You with the canvas."

Give Him permission to add color where there has been darkness.

To bring beauty from brokenness.

To reshape what has become distorted.

To remove what doesn't belong.

To restore what has been damaged.

To create something in your life that brings Him honor.

You may not know what the finished picture will look like. That's okay. You don't have to.

Trust the Artist.

He hasn't finished yet.

And if God is still working, then there is still hope, still purpose, and still possibility.

As you step into this new year, don't simply ask, "What will happen to me?"

Ask instead: "God, what can You create in me?"

Then place yourself in His hands.

You are the canvas.

You are the clay.

And He is the Artist.

Let Him create something beautiful.