Don’t Be Fooled, You Are His Masterpiece #UNITE

There it was. We barely even opened up the page of what to do in Seattle, and we see it…

A glass studio by the world famous artist. “Chihuly”. I had heard of him, who hasn’t?

My husband’s best friend almost went to his school to study, but it was $20,000.

Great gifts, unique talents, skilled master technics always have worth, though most are unwilling to pay the price to perfect them.

The drive down, parking, and entry was effortless.

Then, we step in, and get swallowed up by a wall full of masterpieces, art laid out…

Like any great beauty, a gift God graces us to see…

Oranges, blues, reds, greens. Like the shining sea of heavens might look like. Bright light radiating through each piece, carefully placed in dark spaces made just for them…

And I wonder if most magnificent pieces are always lain upon dark backdrops, so bright light can shine through them more clearly…

I have been reading over and over, “Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.”

And these pieces are light, hope, radiant, blazing with color. Each carefully articulated hand-blown, with creativity and uniqueness.

No two pieces the same. No two, true, original masterpiece are ever, the same. Are they?

Then, I float into the Chihuly’s documentary about how this glass was blown.

“Heat, fire, breathe. I like to open it up.” The long-haired, visionary of this incredible art explains how each piece is articulated.

I see a man with a tube breathing breath deep into the end of the glass, fire has just come out of.

And I can’t help but think of us and our Father.

How at the beginning of creation, He designed each of us, in His perfect image. Taking our structure and filling us with the fire of His Spirit…

The God of the Universe breathing, Ruach Elohim, the breath of life, the Spirit of God in us.

And what are we without His Spirit? 

What are we without the heat of life’s circumstances?

Undeveloped glass? A uncrucified pieces without beauty and originality? Unworthy of being placed on the backdrop of black satin…

Incapable of displaying, having the light of His grace pass through us?

Then, in the video, it talks about how it Italy they made a piece, a rather large piece, that fell to the ground and broke.

They share in the video how the people from America just wanted to throw this multi-million dollar piece away…

But, in Italy, they know that anything can be made beautiful…

Even the broken, or distorted can be placed in the fire and re-made, created, again given significance and valuable.

And in our culture of dispensable, how many things, or people, have we tossed aside because they seem cracked or tarnished? 

How many lives never got a chance because they ran from the fire, never realizing there was beauty waiting on the other side of flames?

Are there any of us too far gone that God can’t redeem us?

A friend comes over yesterday and shared how someone in her congregation just went to Uganda. He was in his sixties.

The man testified how God never gave up on him. It just took him over sixty years to realized it was His job to pursue his calling…

And I love that no matter how old we are, no matter what we have been through…Broken crayons still color. 

The video goes on…

“The whole project is centered around the river.” Chihuly says.

“I am always drawn to water. It would be easier just to say, ‘the hell with it’. But we actually did it. We did everything I wanted to do. And then some.”

Chihuly’s staff is seen tossing thousands of dollar pieces into the river to display; water, light, beauty, elegance…A vision which no one but Chihuly would have ever likely come up with.

Yes, Chihuly thinks outside all boxes. He expands our thinking, drawing us into a beauty only someone who has seen heaven can witness and reproduce…

And I wonder if we get stuck because our thinking is limited. Our world is locked, our comprehension restricted. Our understanding is safe, predictable, and we are fearful of taking chances.

But there is a river that leads us to new creation. It calls us to the deep, takes us to places we never dreamed or imagined.

The river is life and power.

Genesis says, “The Spirit of the Lord hovers over the waters.”

But, too many fear the fire, the dark, the unknown, the thinking outside the box…

And so they sit on the shores, instead of diving into the deep.

And isn’t the watching without doing when we miss the blessing of a God who we can’t control with our thinking or limited understanding?

This morning I do devotions. I see a steel bar. And I sense the Lord tell me, “How do you bend the bar?”

Then, I see the fire of His goodness. The heat and the breathe and the fire that takes even the stiffest of metals and turns it pliable.

The fire always makes even the hardest of substances soft and tender, willing to bend.

Then, I see the glass of Chihuly, and the fire it went into. The pressure of the earth that makes diamonds start beaming when held up to the light.

And all I long for, is to be conformed to Him.

The way He calls, the beauty and hope of being a piece like Chihuly, with a backdrop of black, His light shining through me.

I walk in the gift shop of Chihuly, look through the tiniest pieces of glass for sale and see the tag of $600.00 to purchase one of the tiniest of masterpieces…

And He whispers to my soul…“When you have an original, it always costs more.”

And I get that if art costs this, how much more valuable are we, His masterpieces?

I am not sure about you, but I am tired of mass productions, a society of plastic models and clones of the exact same images produced for shallow profit…

Our God made us originals. Not wasted pieces. Not broken and tossed. Not worthless or indifferent…

He says we have high value because we are the work of His hands, the beautiful display of His spender and image.

Not one of us created to just exist and waste away.

I walk in the bathroom at the Chihuly exhibit before leaving, and it is loud like thunder consuming…

“Don’t apologize for who you.” His breathe, His heart, His fire creating us, magnificent and set apart. With a price tag saying, “Priceless”, and the signature of our God, written on our hearts.

Opening us up, like the glass on display, not created to sit idly, but in his image for all to see…

Life is too short, mass productions always fail us…

Let’s let Him use us, shine inside us…

Even if He uses heat, fire, His breathe…To make us into something beautiful.

And original.

His priceless, masterpiece.

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Thanks for joining!

There is far too much division in this world, isn’t it time we UNITE?