"accidents on purpose"? God was doing it long before Turner!

I recently read that the famous painter Turner often got his ideas in unusual ways.  For one picture, he created an "accident" on purpose, and then...

I'll start at the beginning of this story (whether anecdotal or not, I don't know).  Turner took a blank canvas, drew just a sketchy outline and then asked three children to participate.  He gave them dishes with red, blue and yellow paint and told them to splash and daub the paint any way they wanted over the canvas.  Naturally, the kids were thrilled!  What fun!!

Then they suddenly heard Turner's voice call, "Stop!".  They put down their paints...and then he took over.  There was a big mess of paint on the canvas; a disaster.  Turner took up his brush and transformed the "mess" into a beautiful landscape! 
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What an awesome picture of what God does; what He's been doing for years, centuries, millennia - long before Turner! He can take the splotched, mixed-up messes in our lives and turn them into wonderful works of art...works that highlight the incomparable creativity of the Supreme Artist.

"The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wasteland like the garden of the Lord.  Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing."  (Isaiah 51:3)  The psalmist said, "You turned my wailing into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy." (Ps. 50:11)

It's true that often God rescues us from trials and problems.  But sometimes God permits these "accidents", allowing things to happen to us...(or allowing us, ourselves, to really mess things up!)...and then He says, "Stop!", takes up His brush, and begins to transform the image on the canvas.  The people of Israel often got themselves into hot (boiling!) water when they turned away from their God.  Then He would allow disasters to occur, not only as punishment, but also so that later He could use the situations as canvases on which to display the works of His mighty Hand. "You will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem, every disaster I have brought on it...for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign Lord."  (Ezekiel 14: 22-23)
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Even when the splotches on the canvas aren't "our fault", we have to remember that "I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign Lord."  So right now we're wondering, "What are you doing, Lord?"  The contractors for the extension on our house haven't shown up for ages, the church needs a new place to meet (which we have been hoping to help out with...precisely with said extension), we had to have our puppy Kimal euthanized because he contracted canine distemper, we've both had more problems with our health lately...etc., etc.  We have to remember what He's told us in his Word, and wait to see what marvelous artistic creation comes from His Hand, using all this!
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In Heaven, we'll be privileged to look eternally on the Supreme Artist's masterpiece and appreciate its finishing touch: "Your eyes will see the King in his beauty..."  (Isaiah 33:17)  I can't wait!