Ruined

Last week I was hanging with my family when I heard a dramatic “OH NOOOOO!” come from my 4 year old nephew. I asked him what was wrong, and he feverishly explained “I got snot on my shirt, AND IT USED TO BE MY FAVORITE SHIRT TOO!!!” I looked at the patch on his shirt; casualty of an explosive sneeze. I laughed inside as I wet a paper napkin and dabbed the beloved shirt a few times. The piece of clothing, I believe, was salvageable.


The situation was a little funny, but at the same time, I can empathize with those same kind of panicked feelings. They can pop up unassumingly, catching you off guard during moments of weakness. Sometimes, I will be painting a picture, and the brush will glob on the wrong shade of blue, or accidently smear a crisp line that I had genuinely liked before it was “Ruined”. And I’ll be thinking “AHHHGGH, the whole painting is ruined!” “I’m not an artist; I’m a fake!” “I can’t paint!” So on, and so forth. If you could hear my screaming thoughts at these times, you’d say “pathetic”. Really.

Or sometimes I will get that same panicked feeling when a glass slips out of my hand because I was thinking about other things. By the time I hear the glass shattering I know there is no gluing that thing back together. Ruined. Broken. At least with the painting there was some hope, but this…

Sometimes I wonder if God chuckles at my drama. When I take the time to consider my life, words like “ruined” come all too quickly to my lips. Upsets and mistakes can make a life look unattractive, but life is not ruined no matter how bad it gets. God in his mercy can wash what we claim to be indelible ink. In addition, He gives us new mornings to work with. “Try again” He tells us... and we should.