Box of Paints

Why didn't God give me any musical talent? wondered Clara as she watched her family perform in the Christmas program at church. They can all sing so well--all except me."It's not fair," Clara said after the program. "All of you can sing, and I can't. I felt dumb sitting there while all of you had lead parts with solos in the Christmas musical. I wish I could sing too.""Well, we'd like you to join us, Clara, but we don't have a part for a bullfrog," teased her brother."Lucas, be nice," Mom scolded. "Clara may not sing, but she has other talents." She turned to her daughter. "Like drawing pictures. That's a special talent God has given you. And you're good at memorizing too. Mrs. Gordon wanted you to recite some Bible verses in the program tonight, but you didn't want to do that, remember?""But I want to sing like all of you," said Clara. When Dad came home from work the next day, he handed Clara a box. "Mom told me you wanted some new paints.""Thanks, Dad!" Clara tore open the box. "Oh no! There must be some mistake. All of these are blue! I can't paint pictures with just blue.""Sky and water are both blue. You can just paint those."Clara looked at Dad in surprise. "Dad, that would be boring! I want to paint more than that." Dad smiled. "You're right. You need lots of colors to paint beautiful pictures." He handed Clara another box.Clara eagerly looked over the variety of colors in the second box. "Thanks, Dad. But why did you only give me blue paints at first?""Well, I'm hoping you'll see that if all people had the same abilities, it would be like just having one color for painting pictures," Dad replied. "God gives each person different abilities, and when we work together with other Christians to help more people know about Jesus, we give them a fuller picture of who He is and how much He loves us." Clara nodded. "Instead of wishing I could sing, I'll trust God to help me be the best artist I can be." She smiled at Dad. "And if Mrs. Gordon still wants me to, I could recite some Bible verses at our next program." -Mary Rose Pearson