Be the Giver and the Gift

 

 

“Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”  ~Pablo Picasso

 

As the story goes, humans are made in the image of God.  Now I doubt that God has fingers and toes, hair, skin, and a belly button, though that one is open to debate.  (Did you know that in the painting “Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Adam has a belly button.  But that’s a thought for another time.) 

 

 

Now I don’t believe that God has a physical body like ours.  So what does “Made in His image” mean?  What I believe it means (at least one way) is in the area of creativity.  Only God and humans can create.  Angels, fallen or holy can only copy what they’ve already seen, but humans have been given the ability to create.  This is the access point.  Every piece of art whether a painting, poetry, writing, music, or whatever shows original thought, all of it is given to man through the portal of creativity that resides alone in God to man. 

 

Now art by definition is original.  A print of a painting is a copy of art it isn’t art itself.  A worship “leader” who sings songs someone else wrote is leading a worship cover band; they aren’t creating art until they sing their own song.  But the wonderful thing is that creativity from God knows no boundaries.  There will always be another song or poem or picture (you get the idea) that is waiting to be brought forth to the earth from Heaven.  Waiting to be unlocked and freed into this world, as it already exists in the next through the portal God made available.

 

“Everything in creation has its appointed painter or poet and remains in bondage like the princess in the fairy tale ’til its appropriate liberator comes to set it free.”  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

So create!  Too many times have I heard “I just want to be more like God or more like Jesus”.  So pick up a pen and write a poem that comes from heaven.  Its source can come from nowhere else.  Pick up a paint brush and be “God’s hand extended.”  Write a song and play the music that’s in heaven awaiting you to give it a home on earth.  Create – Make Art – Express Yourself – Try.  Don’t worry if it doesn’t appeal to anyone else.  Commercial art needs that, but this is about you connecting with and being like God.  You creating art is about God giving a gift to the earth and you get to be the first one to see it.  And what you create doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to make you feel good doing it.

 

“The world today doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?”  ~Pablo Picasso

 

 Create, create, create     Don’t self edit, don’t, don’t, don’t       Release the art that is within you, it is there waiting for you.  You want to be more like God?  Do as He does and create.  The world not only needs more art, it needs YOUR art.  According to Andy Warhol, art is whatever you can get away with.  You are an artist in something already, become more like God through daily releasing of your unique creativity.  Be the giver and the gift.  It IS in you and it wants to be shared

 

Peace,

 

~Rafael