Monday, March 3, 2008

beauty

i'm making all things new

the ominous words of God ring out in the book of revelations.
i had to write it like that.

you see:
jesus comes to restore, save, and bring life. throughout the whole bible God is an artist, a creator, someone who brings something new, something beautiful in to being. the first way we see God is as a creator, a sculptor, making earth, and not stopping until it's all good, it's all perfect, until it's all beautiful.

that's the first characteristic we learn about God.

then we screw things up, and it's God to the rescue to restore what was broken.

i don't know much about art, but i do know this: it's about beauty, aesthetics, stuff God understands better than me.

as a follower of jesus, i'm supposed to reflect those characteristics of God, one of which is beauty. we sing songs of God's beauty, we talk about it and all that jive, but we don't get that it's all around us.

God made a perfect world, it was his intent to have everything in harmony, when adam ate that fruit, he screwed everything up, and the world was no longer perfect. but the beauty wasn't gone. it's still there, it's still in everything, just...it's harder to find, and our job is to find that beauty, to work for that restoration, to make things new again.

it's like restoring an old painting.
it's faded, chipped, a bit damaged, there's an old frame, but the painting is still there, it's still got the beauty in it, just it needs work, it needs some new paint, some touch up work, some varnish for the frame, maybe some faux wood, it probably needs to be dusted...


we all have some artistic gift, some way to bring about further beauty in this world.

some people are gifted musicians, others are painters, some are sculptors, others are photographers. me, i'm a writer, a speaker, i try poetry sometimes, i do whatever i can. in all honesty, i'm not an 'artistic' person at all.

my friend randy is a gifted artist, bothe with music, verse, and his artwork. it all harmonizes, it's incredible.

another friend of mine: kie, he's a gifted musician, but he's also amazing at helping others unlock their musical abilities, furthering beauty in the world.

my aunt meanwhile, can take any old antique and restore it to it's old glory.



all these things are participating in God's creation and recreation.

i'm making all things new is a call for us to take what we're given, and use it to participate in the creation of a new earth.

No comments: