God is an Artist

A Creator created creators. And a few days before, He created wonderful things to inspire those creators. Stars and galaxies and cosmic objects of innumerable content sprinkled and spattered across the sky like an artist shaking a wet brush over canvas. Sunsets, jewels, and fractals painted upon the raiment of birds. Abstract molecular structures that boggle the imagination. Nowhere upon the earth or in vast regions of space will you find absolutely nothing of interest. It’s as if God beckons us—dares us—to search out the magnificence of His handiwork. We would be wise to do so.

Humanity has traded in the wild sky for a screen, the stars for pixels, the theater of seasonal change for cheap entertainment, and the songbirds for Taylor Swift. These are all hilarious blanket statements of course, but there is truth in them. We praise the work of our own hands and have little regard for the Creation of God. Jesus said Solomon in all of his splendor was not arrayed like a lily—a flower—of the field. This was the wealthiest, wisest king of ancient Israel. You can be sure he had access to the finest fabrics and skins and dyes and jewels and gold. The keenest craftsmen were at his beck and call. Yet Jesus pointed to a simple flower and said this magnificent king would be put to shame by its craftsmanship. Why? Put it under a microscope and open your mind.

God is not just an artist in the “fine arts” sense, though. He’s a physicist, mathematician, writer, engineer (flagellar motor, anyone???)… He’s all of the above, because he made it all. If the doldrums of this world have left your sails drooping…put up a bird feeder and watch the excitement. Climb a mountain and comprehend the cataclysmic forces of judgment that sculpted its companions. Open an anatomy textbook and see if you, by the power of your own imagination, could design such an intricate, efficient multitude of systems operating and complementing one another.

This may sound silly, naive, shortsighted, and downright disrespectful to all those going through serious troubles and times of hardship; like I’m offering such a simplistic cure for depression and the down-and-outs. All I’m saying is: Start somewhere. In the Biblical account of Job, when God speaks to this broken man who lost everything, He tells Job to look at the wonder of His Creation. Job saw God in some seeable form that impelled him to “repent in dust and ashes” and also contemplated His handiwork. Though we may not have opportunity to see that Majesty in this life the way Job did, I suggest we slow down and observe the art gallery around us. In doing so we may cultivate the tree of inspiration and, like Job, get a glimpse of the Creator.