Recently in my drawing class, our assignment was to create a positive/negative drawing. The technique is simple, but the results can be profound. I basically took a marker and carefully colored in everything that was not there. In the end it revealed a beautiful composition of a couple pieces of God's glorious creation.
As I was looking at the finished assignment and talking with a friend, God began to show me how this is such a great demonstration of how His Holy Spirit works in my life to take my sinful self and turn it into a beautiful reflection of Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
In order to help understand the concept, let me give a couple definitions...
Positive Shape - the identifiable figure (What makes us identify what the shape is). It implies goodness, rationality, and importance and refers to shapes that can be named or described with words. (Curtis, Brian. Drawing from Observation)
Negative Shape - Describes the background. It carries with it the suggestion of insignificance. In everyday use it refers to ambiguous and undifferentiated space whose most noteworthy characteristic is that it serves as the place in which positive shapes can be found. (Curtis, Brian. Drawing from Observation)
When I first came to Christ, I was like a sheet of paper, one with a very light sketch on it. The sketch showed a slight resemblance to what the finished product will be like, but there was SO much work to be done!
When I accepted Christ as my personal Savior, He took my sinful flesh and covered it with His righteousness. As a babe in Christ, there were so many areas that my old self still showed through, making it still a bit difficult for anyone else to see and recognize me as a child of God. Then came the Holy Spirit...
Bit by bit, the Holy Spirit began to work in my life, teaching me how to seek the Lord and focus on my walk with Him. Through the years I started to become more and more of what God wanted me to be. My insignificant sinful flesh began to be conquered, covered, and forgotten through the working of the Holy Spirit, and served only make the righteousness of Christ shine out more and more.
After a while it wasn't only I who was seeing the difference, but others around me also started recognizing that I was beginning to take on the shape of a child of God. Through the power of Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit, the "negative space" in my life began to be a place that where "positive space" was found.
What once was a babe in Christ, barely recognized as a child of God was now becoming a beautiful, vibrant reflection of the righteousness of Christ. Granted, my life is still continually undergoing the transition, and it will not be complete until the Lord calls me home, but how amazing it is to realize that God not only covers those "negative spaces" in my life, but uses them to create something beautiful that is easily discerned by others for what it is - a child of God.
All glory and praise be to Him Who can change the vilest of sinners through His blood!
"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and rightousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
"That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." - 1 Corinthians 1:30-31
Beautiful drawing and a beautiful message. Thank you for sharing it and may the Lord continue to bless you as you seek to glorify Him!
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