What's On Your Canvas?

My sister gave me a French market bag for my birthday. 

It’s a darling little net shopping bag, perfect for filling with a French baguette, some flowers and maybe a few rounds of cheese, if I lived in Paris. 

But I live in Florida and I could have used it today as I shopped for last-minute foodstuffs in case the hurricane headed to the east coast knocks out our power.

I roamed the aisles of SuperTarget and most of the bottled water shelves were already empty. 

I thought I’d pick up some granola bars or trail mix but I ended up with a jar of sun dried tomatoes, a package of cheese tortellini and a jar of basil pesto. 

I guess I can cook it up ahead of time and I really don’t mind eating cold pasta.

I also picked up an extra bag of pumpkin spice coffee too {just in case there’s a pumpkin shortage once the storm passes}. 

And I grabbed another box of cranberry scones to have with my coffee. 

Assuming there's power to turn on my coffeemaker, of course.

These items would have fit nicely in my little French shopping bag, which was from a new restaurant and market in our neighborhood called Canvas, where my sister took me for dinner on my birthday.

With a name like Canvas, I thought there might be large pieces of abstract art hanging on the walls or maybe an unfinished canvas as a painting in progress, but I didn't see any obvious pieces of art. 

Instead the dining room was framed in floor to ceiling windows that offered spectacular views of the lake.

The market was stocked with boutique gifts and vintage items like chandeliers, pillows and chairs. There was even a sandwich counter and a coffee bar.

It seemed it was all part of a larger work of art of community -- a familiarity, a friendly vibe, a place for celebration.

I feel like a work in progress too, but it's hard to see sometimes that I'm part of a bigger story of how God works in all of us. Yet I know what stretches me is what is at work in me.

I start my day with a mug of coffee and my Bible open on the kitchen counter. I pray for those God-breathed words to saturate me and produce a kindness I don't always feel to cloak my words and a grateful perspective to color my conduct. 

Yet I’ve hardly left the parking garage on the walk to my office when someone {anyone really and no one in particular} brushes by the circle of my imaginary boundaries and I feel irritated. Then a task or project or conflict sinks me lower down the stairs of disgruntlement and I wonder where in the world did my best intentions go?

I wonder why progress with what I so desire to change seems impossible. Why is the new path so difficult for me to forge on top of the same old worn down tracks? Why can’t a lifelong demeanor be transformed? 

And then I see it.

Just as the gifts and the food and the people -- even the French market bag --  of the Canvas Restaurant & Market make it all a work of art.

So are we. 

The canvas isn't finished. We are a work in progress, in the hands of God, shaped for his purposes.

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. - Is. 64:8 

But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. - Jer. 18:4

There will be storms to weather, trials to withstand and challenges to ride out, but we don't do it alone. {Thank goodness.}

So I asked my sister if she had enough gas for the generator and propane for the grill in her outdoor kitchen. She said of course, they were all set since my brother-in-law is always fully prepared. 

The last time there was a hurricane and the entire city was without power, I walked into her house to find my sister and the kids sitting in the living room watching TV with lamps lit and fans blowing. My brother-in-law said he considered turning on the air conditioning for a while but he didn’t want to overload their generator. 

So that’s where you’ll find me if the power goes out {along with the rest of our neighborhood}. 

I know for sure I can make some pumpkin coffee there {courtesy of the generator, of course} and eat my cranberry scones. 

And I can pack them all in my little French shopping bag for the walk over to my sister's house.

I'm having coffee with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart. Click the image to hop over and read more posts from my blogger friends!