Today in my morning reading of Untamed by Glennon Doyle, I came across these quotes,
”Good are originates not from the desire to show off, but from the desire to show yourself.”
“Art makes us less lonely because it always comes from the desperate center of the artist—and each of our centers is desperate. That’s why good art is such a relief.”
I completely agree that good art comes from the center of the artist’s being. As a Jesus-following artist, that center of desperation is a need to connect to the sacred through my paint and canvas. I reach to Heaven to design and create something that connects me to the divine and therefore something that serves as a gateway for others to connect to the divine as well.
Art created in a place of worship and abiding in the Presence of God serves as a gateway for the Lord to reach hearts and change lives. Allow me to share one example of God reaching down form Heaven to touch someone through my art.
Several years ago, I received a phone call from a client who told me how God used one of my paintings to touch his mother. She had felt poorly enough to make an appointment with her doctor, and was on her way to the appointment, when she stopped at her son’s house. Her son was busy when she got there, so she went into his living room to sit and wait for him. Wile she sat, she was captivated by his new painting—the one I had painted for him. After several minutes passed, she stood up, walked into the kitchen where her son was, and made a phone call. When her son asked who she had called, she replied, “The doctor’s office. I was sitting in your living room, looking at that new painting and suddenly I feel better. I don’t need to see the doctor anymore.
Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals, had touched that woman’s physical body as she engaged with that painting! That piece of artwork symbolized God’s Presence pouring from Heaven to Earth. It was created in an atmosphere of worship in the Presence of God.
The truth is that any art, created from a place of worship, a place of abiding in the Presence of God, or a place of encountering God, sets a transaction in motion in the spiritual realm that we cannot even begin to comprehend.
Next time you hear a particularly touching piece of music, view a compelling painting, sculpture, or other piece of art, pause a moment. Ask the Lord to speak to your heart and connect you to His divine Presence within the art form. He is the Great Creator and therefore is in each creation here on earth, whether the artist recognizes that or not.
May the Lord open your eyes to see and your ears to hear.
“At the Door” was painted during a worship service a few years ago. It now adorns the walls of a private individual in Illinois.