Dirty Rag Masterpiece
Volume 2, Day 114
An artist was once falsely accused of a crime and thrown into prison. Although allowed to take his brushes and paints with him, he had no way of obtaining a canvas.
One day in desperation he asked a guard for something upon which he might paint. Indifferently the man picked up a dirty old handkerchief and tossed it to him, saying, “There, see what you can do with that dirty rag!”
The artist, being a Christian, painted on it his concept of the face of Jesus. Having laboured long and diligently on the painting, he thought he would show it first of all to the man who had given him the dirty piece of cloth for a canvas. When the guard looked at the beautiful image, his heart was moved, and tears welled up in his eyes. The painting later became famous.
If one man could take an old, dirty rag and make it glow with such loveliness that a thoughtless, indifferent prison guard was moved to tears by it, just think what the Master Artist could do with our lives if we would let Him have His way with us.
In our sinfulness we are just old ‘soiled rags’ devoid of spiritual beauty. Yet the power of God’s Holy Spirit can change us into a masterpiece of divine grace!
Author
Henry G. Bosch
