{"id":347,"date":"2012-03-11T13:26:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-11T13:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/?p=347"},"modified":"2012-03-11T13:26:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T13:26:00","slug":"joys-mural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/?p=347","title":{"rendered":"Joy&#8217;s Mural"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">I\u2019ve stated in past blogs that my granddaughter Joy loves to take a bath at my house. I\u2019m sure part of it is because I let her do things in the bath tub that her mother would not. She can turn her bath water different colors or she can use water crayons to name just a few.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">The water crayons are pretty cool and our bathtub wall has a large white canvas for all of her creations. On one particular day, Joy decided to draw a village. Each member of her family was given a house of their favorite color. A number was also attached to each house\u2026the age of the person who theoretically lived in the house.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">The village was attached by sidewalks and roads. Some had trees or bushes. Some had elaborate windows and others were plain. This project took Joy several bath times to create and complete. After each bath, I would close the shower curtain as if pulling a drape over a masterpiece, waiting for the artist to return.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">Finally it was finished. There was nothing more to add. Nothing to remove. It was finished. It was her best work and the art she was most proud of. <\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">We are viewed by God in this same way. We are His best work and what He is most proud of. Do you wonder why? There are times when I am not my best, some might even say at my worst. When I cannot seem to live up to His standards, but He loves me all the same.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">Of course we can turn straight to Psalm 139 to learn just how God created and designed us. <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">\u201cYou created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother\u2019s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well\u2026your eyes saw my unformed body.\u201d<\/i> (Psalm 139:13-16) Yes, we are God\u2019s most wonderful masterpiece, fearfully and wonderfully made.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">After each day of creation, God ended the day with the phrase, <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">\u201cAnd God saw that it was good.\u201d <\/i>But after creating man, God ended the day with the phrase, <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">\u201cGod saw all that he had made, and it was very good.\u201d<\/i> Man was not just good, he was very good. God\u2019s \u201cvery good\u201d creation.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">Ephesians 2:10 from The New Living Translation says it this way. <\/span><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">\u201cFor we are God\u2019s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.\u201d <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">We are His masterpiece, but created for a purpose. One purpose stated here is to do good.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">If we look at ourselves from this perspective, I can begin to understand why God looks at me as His most precious creation. Even when I am not at my best, God working through me makes me His best.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">Joy\u2019s mural remained on the wall of the bath tub for several weeks, but then, it eventually had to be removed. I washed down the walls and watched as the colors were diluted with water and swirl down the drain. But not before getting several pictures of this masterpiece.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-x0tcbkQdzKw\/T1t2WF8L-9I\/AAAAAAAAADo\/zxpWYhZW34w\/s1600\/2011-02-12+Joy+Mural+001m.jpg\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"400\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-x0tcbkQdzKw\/T1t2WF8L-9I\/AAAAAAAAADo\/zxpWYhZW34w\/s400\/2011-02-12+Joy+Mural+001m.jpg\" width=\"337\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">Grace and peace be yours in abundance,<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">Donna<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve stated in past blogs that my granddaughter Joy loves to take a bath at my house. I\u2019m sure part of it is because I let her do things in the bath tub that her mother would not. She can turn her bath water different colors or she can use water crayons to name just [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,15,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-believing-god","category-knowing-god","category-trusting-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}