A WORK OF ART
A thought occurred to me, as I was explaining to my girls that it is always a good idea to stop and ask Papa for ideas when trying to be creative. There we were, surrounded by an array of dollar store paint, brushes, and canvasses, donned in Daddy’s old dress shirts, ready for action. Hope had decided she’d like to try abstract art, while Promise was going to work on this vision she’d had while praying earlier, and the two little ones were eager to find faster and more elaborate ways of creating the colour “brownish” at the centre of their masterpieces.
As we stood there, brushes in hand, I found myself sharing with them a concept He had been working on in my own heart for quite some time. We are all creators. Made in the image of the Creator. When the earth was formless and void, His Spirit moved across the surface of the waters. In the darkness, He spoke, “Let there be light,” and there was light! The massive canvass, with no form, no shape, no colour, lay stretched out before Him. Endless possibilities. And He created something magnificent.
That same Spirit breathed life into mankind. That same Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. That same Spirit lives inside of us! The very same. The one and only.
He surrounds us like the air we breathe. He is in all and through all and surrounding everything. He is infinitely powerful, infinitely creative, and infinitely loving. When we receive Him – accept His precious gift – when we turn from darkness to light, it is like being born again. For the first time, as a newborn baby exits the warmth and dark of the womb, opens her little mouth, and takes in that first blessed gasp of air, she is born. As a human, we have this opportunity and this experience to exit the darkness and enter into the Kingdom of God. We come up out of the perceived safety of our understanding and we open up our precious mouths and take in an enormous breath of Him. From that moment on, we breathe Him. He’s like the wind.
So we stopped for a moment, looking at our own blank canvasses, and we held our breaths. We held them for ten seconds or so. And then we took in a big breath. That’s better.
Some things in life call for the intensity and tenacity of fasting and focused prayer for a significant period of time. And yet, so often, I find it is in those simple moments of every-day; those tasks that may seem mundane, or those opportunities that stretch us a little (or a lot), when I just need to remember to stop and to breathe Him. In and out. Out and in. And let the light come.
“Father, live in me to day. Explode out of my being with your creative energy and love. Show me how you see things. Show me how you see “them”. Let me be the one you designed me to be. Alive and vibrant and overflowing with your goodness.”
J.