God Has Created You to Be a Work of Art and an Artist at Work
A few weeks ago, my parents dropped off a box in my garage. I stood there, pried dorsum the cardboard flaps, uncovering four years of books, papers, notes, photos, and artwork. When information technology came to the books, title after championship had to practice with my art major: Wheel Throwing, The Complete Printmaker, Drawing Structure and Vision, Art History, etc. Nonetheless, what defenseless my attention was a sketchpad where, from time to time, I would write down minor notes about art.
I flip through the pages and a phrase catches my middle: "Creatio ex nihilo" –Latin for "Creation out of nil."
"In the showtime God created" (Gen. 1:ane). The first affair we know nearly God and His character—earlier anything else—was that He created, profoundly speaking the very being of something into being without canvass, castor, paint, wood, metal, or even dirt for that matter. In contrast, I have moved pigment, formed clay, pressed prints, etched glass, and pushed lead—but I have never created annihilation out of zilch.
Another phrase catches my eye: "Imago Dei" – Latin for "Image of God"
"So, God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them" (Gen. i:27). How incredible to think there are eight billion ways to make men and women, and He continues to come up up with new combinations of personalities, body types, skin tones, and skill sets every 24-hour interval. To each new person He also instills creativity, this innate desire to imagine, dream, and experiment.
We all have it, all eight billion of us, because we are fabricated to imitate God. We create because God created first. Human beings were made to be artistic. In fact, it could exist argued that some of the best art that has ever been created and the most talented artists that have ever existed oasis't necessarily been sympathetic to the Christian faith. It is hither that we can run across God's common grace at work in all prototype-bearers whether they acknowledge God equally the gift-giver of their talent or non. Art reflects the way people run across the world and even its brokenness. Whether we realize it or not, we are all "makers," all "artists," and information technology is deeply embedded in our civilization from creatively packaged commercials on TV to even what nosotros choose what to habiliment in the forenoon. Art is everywhere and as we influence society by making art, fine art turns effectually to influence, shaping and molding us in return.
Then, have you ever stopped long enough to notice only how much art drives civilisation? The artist presses into our everyday experiences and teases out the most compelling and profound reflections. This causes u.s. to resonate with their experience whether we agree with their conclusions or not. Their perspective is their reality but is it to be yours? Is it to be mine? Accept yous ever watched a movie or listened to a song and thought, "that's exactly what I experience like"? On many different levels, art allows us to relate, identify, and connect as human beings. The common denominator of life's experiences regularly overlaps with other human beings. Often, artists are the script and song writers that connect one person to another.
What you experienced is part of your personal story inside the larger story of life. The art you make or see is an expression of what you feel and call back equally information technology connects to an important question we all should be asking and that is, "who am I?" The creative person is always asking or stating something. Fine art does that. Expert fine art keeps united states of america coming back for more than—to keep looking, listening, and seeing.
And so, as art helps u.s. inquire good questions nigh life's experiences, how do we interpret and respond correctly to the questions information technology oft raises? In his volume Art Needs No Justification, Hans R. Rookmaaker says, "Art cannot exist used to show the validity of Christianity; it should rather be the reverse. Christianity is truthful; things and deportment and human endeavor only get their meaning from their relationship to God; if Christ came to make us human, the humanity and the reality of art find their foundation in him."1 Practiced art reveals something well-nigh the world that is true. Beautiful art reveals something about the manner God made it to be.
What is Rookmaaker saying? I think he is saying that because we all create, nosotros need the lens of scripture and God's character to help us run across correctly in order to "do humanity," or art, correctly. Nosotros do not need to be afraid of reality or what creativity tin prove the states. Rookmaaker also says, "Contact with reality at a deep level is part of the Christian'south life. He enters into reality, rather than trying to pull abroad and escape from it. The flight from reality is a marking of Eastern and classical mysticism, non of Christianity."two Creativity earlier the fall was perfect, beautiful, and flourishing. Now information technology is riddled with the effects of sin. Because of sin, fine art is as well broken and tin never fully depict the truth of God's world. Fifty-fifty though it is broken, art provides a mode for usa to see both the simplicity and complexity of life. Information technology helps u.s. think well-nigh the way life was, the way it is now, and the hope of the restoration to come.
Creativity is office of God'south skillful design. The Journal of Positive Psychology published an commodity entitled, "Everyday Action as a Path to Flourishing."3 Within their research they surveyed 658 students and asked them to keep a periodical for thirteen days, recording their positive daily behaviors and noting their effects. Every twenty-four hours they logged the amount of time they spent beingness artistic. The overall outcome was that the students who engaged in more creativity throughout the solar day led positive, fulfilled lives. Being creative similar our Creator connects u.s. to our pattern and purpose and in plow, leads to greater fulfillment. The piece of work of our hands and the meditation of our hearts should reverberate Him. Nosotros are virtually happy when we are doing what nosotros were created to practice, condign more than similar the person we were made to reverberate.
The last phrase that got my attention was "Christian" –Latin for "Piddling Christ" or "Follower of Christ."
True fulfillment comes from existence conformed to the paradigm of Christ. As artists, nosotros desire to make art that reflects God's graphic symbol of truth, goodness, and beauty. Eight billion unique artists were made to create this kind of fine art. I day nosotros will see what we were making with our whole lives, whether it was pointing to the Artist of all artists…or to something far less inferior. May we observe satisfaction, joy, and contentment in the "doing of fine art" as it drives u.s. to connect with the Artist who does all things well, and to this day, has a brush and pallet in hand when it comes to the canvas of you and me.
About the Author
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H.R. Rookmaker, Fine art Needs No Justification. Regent College Publishing, 2010. Quote retrieved from goodreads.com ↩
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Ibid. ↩
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Tamlin South. Conner, Colin Yard. DeYoung & Paul J. Silvia. "Everyday Creative Action as a Path to Flourishing." The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13:2, 17 Nov. 2016: pp. 181-189 ↩
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Source: https://inallthings.org/we-create-because-god-created-first/
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