This painting is an earlier sheep painting from several years ago. It’s a 20×20″ oil on canvas. It’s fun to look back at earlier pieces and see how far I have come as an artist.
In the last few Life Palette post we looked at the Truths that come from “A Challenge That Will Change Your Life“.
Truth #1: God Meets All My Needs
Truth #2: God Gives Me Peace
Today I want to continue by looking at the 3rd truth from the reading challenge: God Heals All My Hurts. (If you’ve missed the prescribe reading be sure and get started, I guarantee this 30 day challenge will change your life!)
A Vivid Memory
While sitting in my office listening to the insurmountable problems of a couple who desperately needed help, I remember thinking, “I don’t want to be here”. In an instant, my mind raced back in time to one of the most vivid memories I have of Grandpa and his sheep.
We were in the barn together and he was checking the sheep for cuts that might need doctoring. One of the sheep had run through the barbed wire fence and was cut very bad. The wool was still covering the cut, hanging like a flap over the wound. I watched as Grandpa pulled the wool back, making the raw meat of the sheep visible. The wound was not that shocking, having been raised on a farm, what was shocking was that there were maggots. There was what seemed like thousands of them. I’m sure there were only a few hundred, but it was overwhelming to me as a 10 year old. Then Grandpa did something that was a shocker to me, he reached in with his bare hand and scooped the maggots out and threw them to the ground. He repeated the process many times until he had removed every maggot, picking the last few out with his fingertips. Then he gently applied a healing ointment to the wound and replaced the flap of wool.
Truth #3: God Heals All My Hurts
That memory, of time spent with Grandpa in the barn with a wounded sheep, is a picture of Jesus as the shepherd who created you and loves you. It is a picture of the 3rd truth found in Psalm 23: God Heals All My Hurts. “He renews my strength.” (Psalm 23:3 NLT) He wants to renew and restore all of your hurts assuring that you live life as the masterpiece He created you to be. You need only to give them to him. (Oh yes – and by the way – Grandpa had to revisit that same wound many times and repeat the process before it was completely restored!)
Leadership Application:
As I continued to sit and listen to the problems of this couple, I was reminded of the maggots in my own life and how a loving shepherd reached down from heaven and applied the healing ointment. And now, as a shepherd to people, I must follow his lead.
Prescribed Reading:
In the morning, Read Psalm 23 in silence when you first arise. Read carefully and slowly. Don’t rush through it so that you can say with fidelity that you did it. Instead, let the truth of each phrase capture the attention of your heart, mind and spirit. Read it again in like manner at noon. Read it once more just before going to bed at night, only this time read it out loud. Do this for thirty days consecutively and let nothing come between you and this transformation process. As Paul says in Romans 12, you will be a transformed into a “New person by changing the way you think.”
Don’t Miss A Post:
To make sure you get all of the Psalm 23 posts, Changing The Way You Think, subscribe to Life Palette blog and receive it daily in your email. Friday’s post will include another of my sheep paintings and Truth #4 from Psalm 23.
Check out this song, by Jon Foreman, entitled The House of God Forever. This song is based off of Psalms 23 and will help to show you God’s love and the peace he gives you.