Scribbles on a Masterpiece
Basically the purpose of life
The other night, my family and I were driving home from dinner toward a gorgeous sunset over the Rocky Mountains.
In addition to clouds that looked painted with watercolors, I noticed a couple of contrails*, those streamers of clouds left behind by airplanes.
I love how the contrails are like humans’ little toddler scribble on God’s breathtaking artwork. We can’t even compare to his beauty, but he still allows (and wants) us to add our own touches to the masterpiece.
A couple of weeks later, we celebrated Greta’s second birthday. It was a Winnie the Pooh party, so we played Pin the Tail on Eeyore with all of Greta’s tiny friends. After they all stuck their tails on (Greta’s was upside down—nowhere near the mark), Greta grabbed a pen and started scribbling on my dad’s hand-drawn Eeyore game.
We were so happy to see her creativity and excitement that we didn’t care about the fact that she’s not very good at wielding a pen yet.
Scribbles on a masterpiece.
Then this weekend, we hiked a trail in Boulder. And I couldn’t help but notice the same concept. Through the rugged, God-formed wilderness, trail designers cut a path with stone stairs and wooden guard rails—designed to guide people like me in an experience of the natural beauty there.
Scribbles on a masterpiece.
All of these same-but-different metaphors made me think: this is the point of being human.
We were made to take the raw materials of the created world and cultivate them into something even more beautiful and meaningful. We are supposed to bring life to our world and to the people around us in ways only we individually can. We’re each invited to use what we’ve got to make the world a little more beautiful.
Maybe you’re invited to…
transform vocal cords into melodies
combine wheat and milk into fettuccine Alfredo
gather wildflowers into wedding bouquets
reshape letters into logos
turn conversation into reconciliation
change lumber into “home sweet home”
mold students into leaders
reconstruct trauma into healing
raise a newborn into the next president
convert your home into a safe haven.
You were made to scribble on the masterpiece. Whatever you do, just know it matters. We might only leave a few scribbles on a generations-long work of art, but we get to feel the joy of participating in the work.
*So as I researched a tad for this letter, I realized that jet streams and contrails are two different things, but they look really similar. I honestly don’t know which one we were seeing in the sunset, but since jet streams are naturally occurring and not man-made, that would break down my entire metaphor. So for the sake of illustration, I’m saying they were contrails from a jet. I write; I don’t do science, ya know?
Book Progress
I wish I could say I hung up my giant Post-It notes and got my fledgling book perfectly organized like I planned to this week, but alas, I did not. (In fact, you can even see my giant Post-It notes—completely blank—under my desk in the photo above.🙃). My brain is so chaotic, so I realized I had even more organizing to do before I could even segment my ideas into chapters on my Post-It notes.
Right now, I’m just trying to gather my notes and quotes from various sources into one doc. Then, I can get to actually organizing. So hopefully, I’ll have a more interesting update next week! But I do have one quick question for you…
(If you’re a new subscriber, hi! Welcome. I’m currently writing a book that I plan to self-publish. It’s been a lifelong dream, and I’m sharing my weekly progress here! I’ll also occasionally ask for feedback as I go along. Thanks for being part of the wild journey!)
Five Faves
Christmas trees before Thanksgiving. We just put our tree up, and need I say more? All the coziness!!!
This French toast recipe. We made it for Greta’s birthday morning. So simple and SO good. It would be a fun Thanksgiving weekend breakfast. :)
This song (Drunk Again by Song House, Mariarose). It’s hard to find Christian songs with this much raw honesty. I’d love to see more music like this.
This podcast episode with Kat Von D. I never watched her on LA Ink, but this podcast where she shares her story of coming to faith is awesome.
Sorry, I’m fresh out of faves this week. Maybe you can help me come up with a fifth? What are you loving right now??
As always, thanks for being here. Your support means everything. I hope these little emails make your life just a little more beautiful. And happy Thanksgiving! :)
Sarah
p.s., THANK YOU for helping me reach my goal of 50 subscribers by my third newsletter! 52 people have opted in to support my writing, and I am so beyond thankful for that. Thank you thank you thank you.