I keep a box of odds and ends that might come in useful some day. I call it my "junk box".
I was starting to get a lot of junk in that box, so I decided to clean it out, but wanted to actually use the things somehow since that was the whole point! So each week I chose a random object from the box and asked God to use it somehow for his glory or to simply encourage someone.
One week I pulled out a gold frame with no picture or glass. I asked God what he might want to use it for, and for some weird reason I felt like he wanted me to paint a copy of the last drawing by Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter who was killed in an accident. It is a picture of a butterfly with the word "See". I thought perhaps God wanted to encourage someone who might see it and who might be familiar with the story behind it.
So I painted my own copy (feeling sort of creepy and morbid!) and then asked God what I should do with it. I didn't seem to get a clear answer, so I took it with me as I went grocery shopping. But still nothing happened.
I returned home and sat it on the table beside my bed as I went about my daily chores. I pretty much forgot all about it...
Later that day, my lazy eye began to bother me a lot. I grew very frustrated, since I had often prayed for God to heal that eye, but he hasn't. I began to tear up over it and asked God why He had given me that constant weakness in my flesh that interfered with every nice day.
Finally, still in tears, I went to my bedroom to lay down and give my eyes a rest. And when I walked into the room, what did I see? That very picture I painted earlier with one word: "See".
It was then that I realized, God had instructed me to paint that picture to teach me something! That no matter what happens on earth, there is more to see. Our pains and struggles will be completely forgotten someday, and someday I will truly "see" and understand why. Oh, the picture of the butterfly is unfinished (Chapman's daughter went outside partly through and was killed) so it's also a reminder that we only see a part of the picture right now, or "through a glass darkly".
So that was kind of a weird thing, but God definitely taught me something through it!