I was working on the mural my host asked me to paint on an empty white wall in Botswana, when it got me thinking.
Transformation is a messy process.
I looked at the disaster I’d created around me. The brightly colored oil paint splattered all over the green grass and the accidental drips on cement floor—drops of red, yellow, green and blue now permanently planted in places they were never meant to be. I didn’t have all the supplies I needed, so I had to improvise by using reeds to stir the paints and attempt to mix the colors I needed using the ones I was given.
Every so often I’d step back to look at the mural as I painted. All the places I’d gone outside the lines would now have to be re-worked into the plan. Not to mention my favorite pair of jeans had now become my “painting jeans.”
So, I started thinking about transformation and the messiness that it is.
I realized that whether it’s a song I’m writing or a picture I’m painting, I never like to share it with anyone until it’s finished and I’m at least somewhat pleased with the outcome. And even then, I often find myself tucking it away somewhere, never to be seen by anyone but myself.
But what I’m realizing is that when we refuse to show the world the whole process—when we only show the world the neat and tidy product of our labor—we rob them the opportunity of seeing how far we’ve come. We rob them of the process, and now instead of seeing a masterpiece, all they see is a nice piece of art. They don’t get to share in and marvel at the testimonies that produced the masterpieces being created.
God is glorified when we allow the world to see the whole process. He’s glorified when they see where we started and how far we’ve come.
We have to share our stories.
We have to let people into the process.
Even if we’re not there yet—even if the piece isn’t finished—we have to let them see.
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This past month in Botswana, I got to see countless masterpieces being made. Some of them were scary; some of them didn’t look very beautiful—but that’s because they’re not finished yet.
The first time I stepped into the dark mud hut and met Ntusong, I couldn’t see two feet in front of me. But once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I was able to see her. I got to sing to her and pray for her; I got to hear her soft laugh.
I don’t know how the rest of her story is going to end, but I know that God is in the process of redeeming it.
He’s redeeming it right now.
Right now, our ministry host is in the process of trying to get Ntusong out of her abusive situation. Each morning, volunteers from Adore come to bathe her, care for her, and bring her food.
Ntusong didn’t have any of that a few years ago. A few years ago, she was lying on that cold dirt floor completely hopeless. She was raped and abused, and her own family was using her disability to get money from the government to feed their alcoholism.
But that was only the beginning of her story.
Now her story is changing. Now she has hope.
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Killy’s parents died when she was just a baby.
She spent her entire childhood and adolescence by herself in a small mud hut with no one to raise her or care for her.
Her brother would keep her alive by leaving food outside the door of the mud hut.
Killy would have to fight with the dogs to get to her food.
When our ministry host found her a few years ago, she couldn’t communicate with words. She couldn’t even walk upright because she had never learned how.
She’s now in her early 20s and has the mentality of a small child.
She’s been taken in and is now living with the pastor’s family in Ngarange where she’s finally getting the love and care that she lacked for most of her life.
Killy is so full of JOY!!
When I look at her now, I see so much beauty! She’s so loving and she carries the biggest smile on her face wherever she goes. She’s perfectly content just to sit beside you and hold your hand. Each day, she walks from the Pastor’s house to the Kindergarten all by herself, and she now walks completely upright!
Killy is loved. She has the most beautiful laugh.
She is healthy, loved and redeemed!
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The thing about transformation is that the outcome almost never looks the way you imagined it would. But when you allow God to transform, and you allow it to be carried out to completion, it will ALWAYS end in beauty.
So it’s OK if right now it looks a little messy. Or maybe even a lot messy.
Because that can only mean one thing:
There must be something beautiful in the making!
Just let it happen.
