My second grader has been learning the “rules” of drawing lately. Straight lines, full bodies, stick-like hair on people. She even has changed her sunshine’s to shooting rays, instead of zig-zag lightening bolt-like rays, shooting out in all directions.
She is learning really fast…“Stay in the lines. Obey the rules. Fall in place. Look, act, draw just like everybody else.”
Yet, I open the word and read something that changes my thinking, octaves from who I thought God was….
Ephesians 2:10
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which were prepared for us beforehand,
that we should walk in them.”
I know this verse, but then I keep studying, digging into the heart of what scripture is telling us…
“Workmanship” is “poiema” in Greek.
“Poiema” meaning “to make” or in other words meaning, “poem”.
Manufactured, produced, designs by the Master Designer; an artisan, God.
In other words, we are God’s poem, His work of art. And it is there, I stop and let His truth soak into the bone and marrow of what I was.
See, often we see God as too big, or too small, too far off or too close. We can view God as harsh, hard, unloving, or distant. But to view God as an artist? The master artisan? Where does that fall in our “reason”…or in the lessons we were taught in Sunday School?
We may have been taught to fear God…but to see God as a loving, creative, a master artisan who made us His poem? That can be, for some of us, just a little too hard to digest.
Second, God didn’t create us because He had too. He created us out of the passion He has for us. No real art, no good work of art can be forces, made simply out of duty. All great work of art is created out of a welling up, a yearning, a passion stirring in the very depths of something in us. Real art, excellent art, is often the overflow of the passion birthed from us. Growing, groaning, longing for expression in the template of the moment.
All poetry was made to speak to you, share a story, call forth, bring others to the same place of yearning the artist who created it…is living from. All poetry is made to sing a song to it’s reader. But better yet, it is made to change the heart of the one reading it.
In the same way…
He made us, in His image, out of the overflow
of an expression of His goodness.
We are God’s poem.
A poem being melodic and rhythmic.
It ebbs and flows, and sings to us. True art flows through us.
It lives in us…far after it was created. Excellent work stirs emotions, a yearnings, stirring in us a desire to respond to its image.
In the same way, His writing of us, His song over us, could never have been created from “models” or “forms”. He didn’t create us out of “molds” of mass manufacturing.
He wrote us on His hands, He birthed us from the flesh of His flesh. He painted us from the canvas of the very heart of God, splashing us with the colors of His goodness.
He made us in His image, so that when people look on our good works they will long to glorify Him. Long to praise the master craftsman. Long to hold high in all of history…His name…His reputation…His achievements.
We are not forgotten, unseen. Like a writing, poem, painting, or a piece of art we may (in our human reason) simply create with our hands, then leave alone to sit, forever unseen.
God is not like us. He takes pride in His workmanship. He hangs us at the very centerpiece of His heart. He is protective of us. He regards us as a treasure. Never forgotten.
God is not like us. He takes pride in His workmanship. He hangs us at the very centerpiece of His heart. He is protective of us. He regards us as a treasure. Never forgotten.
He values us, as we might guard, gaze at, treasure a Picasso on our mantle; the way we might close our eyes and savor the sounds of Beethoven.
The Bible says God sings over us. Our works being the melody we sing back to Him.
And I have found in our Walmart world, our drive-through nation that we live in…it is easy to just want to label us, “Christians”. It can be easy to put all people into a pot and stir them around endlessly, until none of them have a voice, an opinion, or an identity of their own.
But, what if we get it….We are unique. Distinct. Original works created simply for His goodness. What if we got….We are crafted by the Master Craftsman himself. All unique. Yet, all of us still made exactly in His image. All having a priceless value to our maker.
As this poem-like definition of who I am, sinks still further in. It begs the question….
- What if we saw, really saw, that the meth addict begging for money on the corner….is also a poem created by the hand of God?
- The Muslim with dark cloth hiding His image…is a poem too….a poem still waiting to be UNITED with with a loving God.
- What if we got that whether black or white, tall or skinny, broken or hurting, lost or lonely….were are all special. Priceless. Masterpieces. Poems of the living God.
What if we got, really got that every person is His masterpiece? Would we love people more? Would we UNITE with people more…knowing a quartet or an orchestra of sorts, is always more beautiful than one simple chord playing alone?
Would we stop putting price tags on other people? Would we love our maker more? Would we love each other more…if we really knew we each…no matter who we were…are God’s poem?
I want to teach my daughter to draw in the lines. Just like I want to write in the “correct” model that others might have for me….that colleges, books, and writing courses might say works for other people.
But my silence has taught me…..whether “free verse” or “allegorical”, whether clay structure, or modern architecture; whether oils, or paints, or glass works unbelievably beautiful….
You are an original. You are loved. You are priceless.
And although love is eternal. Life, our life, is no more than poem…meant to be solely a unique expression of Him.
We were not made to be robots. But living, breathing, singing, rejoicing, poetic demonstrations of a God who looks upon His creation….And sings praises.
After all, doesn’t rays of sun look more like lightening, reaching all, touching all of creation anyway?
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5 Comments
An inspiring post, Jen. There is truth in your words. Yes, it is amazing to me that God does NOT see me like I see myself – He sees something much better! I really liked thinking about Him creating me to be a poem. I write poetry sometimes, and I know what it feels like. The artist is intimately attached to his art. And that is how God is with us.
I can picture Him standing back and saying, “That is very good.”
GOD BLESS!
I believe every child can be taught the scientific way to draw as well as write poetry – and then once they learn the “science” of it all – then they become Monet’s and e e cummins.
Just kind of like we need to read the bible, learning who He is – and then throw oursevles at Him with abandon and spirit freed!
Love your post on this:) love. it.
This was touching. Thinking of God as the master artisan. I often think of Him in this way when I picture His creations such as majestic mountains, tumbling waterfalls, and watercolor sunsets. But to think of Him as an artisan when He created me–that’s a whole leap of faith and relationship that goes beyond what I can see.
I really liked these sentences from your post because they speak to me not only of God’s passion in creating me, but the welling up that should occur within me when I write.
“No real art, no good work of art can be forces, made simply out of duty. All great work of art is created out of a welling up, a yearning, a passion stirring in the very depths of something in us.”
What a beautiful post.
Blessings,
Janis
From one poem to another- Jen, You words ministered as deep calling unto deep- had a counselling session this avo- and this post was exactly what I needed to read in order to bring the focus of my mind on to what God says about me 🙂
What a blessing you are in my life, and in the lives of your readers- as well as that precious family of yours.
Nothing good will I withhold from those who love me, says the Lord- so I pray an abundance of EVERYTHING you need, for mind, body and spirit.
Love,
Mary.
One of the things we are focusing on at the retreat as part of restoration is creativity. Often people think they aren’t creative, but it simply isn’t true. Our creativity may look different than what we normally think of, but it doesn’t mean that we lack it. We are created in His image and He IS an artist, just as you said. When we realize that we share this gift from Him, I think we are awakened to much.