My daughter, Anna, is an accomplished artist. Her art hangs in collections around the world. In the hallway of our home is one of Anna’s paintings. It’s a Chagall-like image of a cat. The painting is professionally framed. As I walked by the painting today, I noticed an itty-bitty little insect the size of a pin’s head had somehow crawled into the frame and died on the brilliant white matting underneath the glass over. I only saw the little dead insect because I was looking intently at the painting. A casual passerby would not see it.

I have carried the image of the dead insect all day knowing there was a word coming. Later in the day, the Lord provided the word to go with the image.

Some of you have certain people in your life who do not fully appreciate the beauty of how God has created you. They do not stop to see the beauty of you like I did when pausing to view once again a familiar painting in our home to appreciate its artistic rendition. These individuals stop to look close for the failings and defects left behind in the frame of your life. In doing so, they fail to see the real you.

We all have a dead bug somewhere in the frame of our history. These little flaws surround our lives like a frame surrounds a work of art. They are not part of the original image. They are simply part of our broken history. They are reminders of our past, not our future. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians he referred to our lives as God’s masterpiece. We are gallery worthy God-art. Keep this in mind the next time a critic enters the gallery of your life and points out your dead bug.

By the way, I like that little, dead bug. I don’t plan on removing him from the frame because he reminds me that true beauty can never be compromised by the presence of a small bug or a small-minded critic.