I’ve spent many hours over the last week at the hospital in uncertainty waiting for answers. My mother suffered a stroke, and for the first time in my life, I was cast into a reality where I was the mother and my mother was the child. I sat beside her and listened as she tried with all her might to put words together that made sense.

My mother and I have had our fair share of communication issues over the years, both of us being rather opinionated and stubborn. Prayerfully, that relationship has blossomed as we both grew older and wiser. Both of us learned to be more open, loving, and understanding of our differences instead of allowing them to drive us apart.

As I sat recalling those times of friction between my mother and I, I realized something. The days we spent fighting—those were the days our communication suffered, not the passed week in my mother’s weakness and not even in my infancy. I realized weakness doesn’t hinder our communication; weakness is made perfect in love, and love is made perfect in weakness.

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. In love, we support those who need us, just as God supports us when we need Him. The bond between a mother and her child is one of the strongest bonds on this earth; it’s love that bridges the gap between two people at very different stages of life. It’s love that bridges the gap between us and our Creator.

“Made Perfect” was created in perhaps one of my weakest moments. As I sat in the hospital in uncertainty and despair, I chose to lean on my Creator, and He inspired me to create something beautiful.

As an artist, I’ve struggled at times to create in the face of anxiety. In making the choice to lean on God, I’ve tapped into something very special. By operating in my gifts and living in my purpose, I’ve discovered the key to a beautiful garden I always have access to even in the midst of my greatest fears. Ironically enough, it’s in weakness, I’ve discovered a strength that cannot be shaken—perhaps that’s the greatest gift of all.