“We Can’t Live in a Snowglobe”
I used to love Thomas Kinkade’s paintings, snow globes, night lights, mugs, etc. I used to want to live in one of those gorgeous houses in one of his snow globes or crawl into one of his paintings of a quaint, little cottage by a stream. But that’s not realistic as I realized when discovering that he lived a dark life behind the paintings, a dark life that spiraled into a tragic end. If we think we can live a life as shown in paintings and snow globes, we are greatly mistaken. You see, life is hard. It batters us each day, but we can’t hide from it, cry over it or be one of those angry people who lash out at others because of our circumstances. And we can’t lie in the beds that we made that resulted from our mistakes and bad choices. We must stand tall with feet apart like a captain on a ship who doesn’t allow the wind and waves to knock him over. And if he does get knocked over, he gets right back up again, spreads his feet apart and leans against the force that threatens to knock him down again. We cannot hang onto ourselves and we cannot hang onto undependable people. We must hang onto God in the midst of the daily troubles. I know someone who says, “Life isn’t Skittles and rainbows.” He is so right! At this point in my life I wouldn’t paint a portrait of a beautiful country home with a sunshiny lane where Mr. Darcy waits at the crossroads. I would paint a portrait of a little woman whose blonde hair is standing up in the winds of life as she reaches up toward the sky and finds herself smiling in spite of the hard times. And I would paint the people she knows hanging onto the fence beside her, smiling because they, too, know we can’t live in a snow globe.
abundantlypardoned 