Art as Worship 4

How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob;

   how lovely are your homes, O Israel!

They spread before me live groves of palms,

   like fruitful gardens by the riverside.

They are like aloes planted by the Lord,

   like cedars beside the waters.

Water will gush out in buckets;

   their offspring are supplied with all they need.

Their king will be greater than Agag;

   their kingdom will be exalted.  

Numbers 24: 5-7 (NLT)

Art as Worship 3

Art as Worship 2

Make a lampstand of pure, hammered gold. Make the entire lampstand and its decorations of one piece—the base, center stem, lamp cups, buds, and petals.  Make it with six branches going out from the center stem, three on each side.  Each of the six branches will have three lamp cups shaped like almond blossoms, complete with buds and petals.  Craft the center stem of the lampstand with four lamp cups shaped like almond blossoms, complete with buds and petals.  There will also be an almond bud beneath each pair of branches where the six branches extend from the center stem.

Art as Worship

Wonderstruck

 

I've been thinking a lot about the power of words lately.  It helps that I have a very inquisitive 8-year old that loves to ask me questions like, "How far is 'as far as the eye can see'?" and "what does the word 'slender' mean?" as he stretches out the pronunciation: s-l-e-n-der.

I was pulled into a discussion with said 8-year old just the other day about how amazing it would be to speak a word and have that thing appear.  Creation with nothing more than syllables, pitch, intonation and accent.  Wow.  What an amazing power would that be?  I can't help but think that no matter how hard I might try though, that what I spoke into existence would be nothing more than fragile shadows of what it is that I set out to create.  After all, how can the word "flower" sum up all that a flower is?  How can this simple word sculpt the petals of a tulip as softly rounded as an infant's cheek? How can six letters, arranged in a certain manner, paint a rainbow of colors from the deepest hue of purple to the stunningly pure white?  How can two brief syllables show the tiny tendrils of green shooting up from the ground before the last of the snow has left at the beginning of spring to the final drooping buds browning on the stem in late autumn?

This is often how I feel when I paint.  Inadequate.  Fumbling, tripping over missteps taken with my painting knife.  Trying.  Trying oh so HARD to create.  And what do I have when I am finished?  Fragile shadows of the pictures in my mind.  Fragile shadows of the world around me.  Fragile shadows of the wonder of God.

And I stand, speechless, in awe of my Creator.

When I look around everyday I am seeing God's handwriting.  He authored the clouds.  He penned the wind.  He breathed life into man with nothing more than a word.  He spun a tale of the furthest galaxy.  He wrote the spirals onto the face of a sunflower.  With. Just. A. Word.  Psalm 29: 3-4, 7-9 tells us this:

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is majestic. 

The voice of the Lord strikes
with flashes of lightning.
The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;
the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord twists the oaks
    and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, “Glory!” (NIV)

And here am I.  Stumbling forward toward my easel.  Paint covered knife clutched in my shaking hand.  Wild, powerful, majestic, striking, shaking, twisting, divinely uttered images racing through my head.  I am humble. I am wonderstruck.  Again.

My favorite author, Margaret Feinberg, has a new book out.  Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God.  Wonderstruck is a personal invitation for you to toss back the covers, climb out of bed, and drink in the fullness of life.  You can follow Margaret on Twitter, Facebook, or her blog, and you can learn more about this great book by visiting www.margaretfeinberg.com/wonderstruck. The book can be ordered on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  

I want to welcome my Creator with open arms everyday and see the wonder of God's wild, abounding creativity painted across the face of my child as he asks me about the world he sees around him.  I want to step out into that world with reckless abandon as I overflow with divine awe at the words...at the imagination...at the might of the One who Loved first and best and continues to Love like no other.

Where have you seen the wonder of God in your life?

Art is hard work.

No really, it is.

Some days the LAST thing I want to do is to walk back into my studio. Sometimes I am so disgusted with the work I've done that I have to leave for a while and observe the image from a distance before I can grow to appreciate parts of it and return and try again. Sometimes everything seems to be going GREAT then an interruption comes (generally in the form of one of my children) and it all falls apart before my eyes because I have lost focus.

So why do it?

"In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good (suitable, pleasant) and He approved it; and God separated the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day." Genesis 1:1-5 (AMP)

I prepare. I form. I fashion. I create. I move and hover and brood. And on good days, I approve. What reason more do I need than to watch, emulate and learn from The Master Creator of All?