Volume 28, No. 34
September 14 , 2003    

Picture Perfect

   What you draw on as you go through life has a lot to do with how the final scene turns out.  Read the story of two creative innovations and decide which illustrates your life best.

   In 1952, Detroit paint company owner Max Klein teamed up with artist Dan Robbins to make the first paint-by-numbers kit.  Each came with a brush, a set of numbered paints and a canvas stamped with the outline of a picture on which each section was also numbered to indicate which colour should be used.  Soon, Craft Master was selling 50,000 kits a day!  By 1954, there were more paint-by-number pictures in North American homes than original works of art.  

   The inspiration?  “I recalled reading about Leonardo da Vinci,” said Robbins.  “When he got large and complicated commissions, he’d give numbered patterns to his apprentices to block in areas that he’d go back and finish himself.”  Craft Master’s slogan was, “Every man a Rembrandt”.  Among those who had a brush with the fad were FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

   By 1958 the number was up for those Craft Master kits but that year ushered in another craze invented by a car mechanic in Paris.  Arthur Granjean called his device the Magic Screen and took it to the International Toy Fair where the rights to it were bought by the Ohio Art Company, which renamed the toy, Etch A Sketch.  Thanks to heavy TV advertising, it became the hit of the 1960 Christmas season.

   The technology hasn’t changed in 40 years.  Inside the screen, a pointer is mounted on two rails:  one goes up and down, and the other back and forth.  The grey material is clingy powdered aluminum mixed with plastic beads which help it flow smoothly.  When the pointer touches the screen, it scrapes off the powder.  Shake the Etch a Sketch and the aluminum is redistributed evenly.

   To celebrate the toy’s 25th anniversary in 1985, the company sold an executive version with sapphires and topaz embedded in the knobs, for $3,750.  And George Vlosich, “the Etch A Sketch Kid”, draws so well on the toy, his pictures sell for $5,000.  To preserve them, he carefully unscrews the back and removes excess aluminum.

   To some degree, each of our lives is a paint-by-number exercise.  The Artist lays out the big picture in his Word which also tells us what Christ-like characteristics we should use to colour our lives.  Though we can substitute our own paint scheme, it never turns out as well as if we follow the instructions and complete the picture the way it was designed.  Besides, there’s a lot of comfort and security in knowing we’re following the Master’s plan.

   But the truth is, life is far too complicated for a spiritual kit with just a few primary colours.  Most circumstances and relationships require subtle shading and a variety of tints and hues.  So God gives us the outline, but also entrusts us with an intellectual, emotional and spiritual palette rich in colour and choice, even though He knows we’ll often make a mess.

   Thanks to free will and the trust our Father places in us, our lives are more like an Etch A Sketch production.  With every move of our faith, Jesus scrapes away the dingy, grey sin that clings to everything, leaving behind a clear design that illustrates his love.  Since we use our spirituality so imperfectly, that design is often crude and one-dimensional, done far too slowly and with a number of twists and turns that don’t lead anywhere.  Thankfully, we can start over at any time.  Our lives may need to be shaken and turned upside down for that to happen, but the mercy of God is profound and free.

   Just remember, how well we depict the love of Jesus has nothing to do with how good we look on the outside.  In the clumsy grasp of the inexperienced, that jewel-encrusted Etch A Sketch still made lousy pictures.  It’s the inner workings that count.  If we trust the Spirit, He’ll gift our hands and guide our hearts until, through grace, our lives are perfect.  Picture perfect.

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the Followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To subscribe, contact sgamble@bfree.on.ca