From Small Beginnings
My art teacher exudes encouragement. Two of us students completed paintings recently. As usual, she took photos of us with our paintings. This time I asked Ray to take one of me with Miss Judy. For this painting, I copied one of her paintings of a bunny. After working on my previous painting for months, I was ready for something that would be fun and not take so long.
When I completed my previous painting, Miss Judy encouraged me to frame it. She recommended Mr. Ballard, a framer she has used for many years. The painting is special to Ray and me because it is a view of the barn across the road from us. I based it on a photo I took during an early morning walk with Ray back in 2020. Our road makes two 90 degree turns before becoming straight again in front of our house. I took this picture just after we passed the first of those turns.
Not only did Mr. Ballard do excellent, fast, and reasonable work, we now have a new friend. While he, Ray, and I were chatting after he delivered the finished framed picture, he told us his business story, while giving glory to God for His work in that story.
Mr. Ballard once owned a home remodeling business. In his own home, he had a woodstove in his basement. A relative worked at a local picture frame factory and brought him leftover molding to use as kindling. One day he decided to make a picture frame from some of that leftover molding. From that small beginning, Mr. Ballard’s business took off. In time he turned the remodeling business over to his son and went fulltime into picture framing.
You would never know from the humble look of his framing shed and the chickens pecking around outside it that his is a thriving business. He joyfully told Ray and me that he does a great deal of framing for one of Tennessee’s largest universities, and his work hangs in the offices of elected officials in Washington, D.C.
One important part of his business these days is what he supplies to floral shops. He supplies the shops with framed prints with comforting sayings that they in turn sell to people purchasing them to provide comfort to people who have lost loved ones. Just like the former kindling that he decided to turn into a frame, this part of his business also has a humble beginning. Mr. Ballard saw a similar framed print and saying at a framers trade show one time. After that, he began making them and taking them to the funeral home when he wanted to honor someone’s loved one. Soon others were wanting him to make those pictures for them, and the business grew and grew.
Humble beginnings and turning something that seemed of little value into something of great value remind me of what God does in us. The “little things” you do for your children today can have amazing results because God does mighty things with them.
Jesus said:
“What is the kingdom of God like,
and to what shall I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed,
which a man took and threw into his own garden;
and it grew and became a tree,
and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”
Luke 13:18-19