Have been reading a book the last couple of days that has some fresh and valuable insights about Christ and Creativity. I recommend it for all you artists out there! (and who isn't an artist, I want to know???)
Michael Card has always impressed me with his quiet, poetic and poignant insights into Jesus and Jesus' people. I'm especially moved by chapter 7 (that's how far I've gotten up to this point), "The Character of Creativity".
The author deals with "humility: the gift of hiddenness" (like Christ) and compares that with the cheap imitation of 'false humility'. good stuff, I tell you!
He also dives into the oh-so-popular topics of obedience and servanthood (more ways to be like Christ!). Card uses events like Jesus washing the disciples' feet and making them breakfast on the shore after his resurrection to demonstrate these qualities.
Here's a few of my favorite insights from the chapter:
p. 85 - "Though Jesus is the risen Lord of Glory, though he stands there with scars in his hands and feet and side, he is there to fix breakfast. He knows that they've been out all night, they haven't caught anything and they are hungry. And so he is there, their Servant Savior. He feeds them when they are hungry. He washes their dirty feet when they are tired. It is the shape of his life."
p. 85, a quote from Vincent Van Gogh - "The more I think it over the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people."
p. 86 - "The call to servanthood causes the creative gift to come alive. It gives it color and tone and direction and purpose. The art that naturally flows out of our obedient response to the call of God on our lives, as a result of the imprint of the creative mandate, can, by grace, become water to wash the feet of sisters and brothers, cold water to quench the thirst of an unbelieving world. To become servants of Christ is the highest goal we can aspire to in our creative work."
p. 86 - "To be meaningful, art must serve, must wash feet. Like Jesus, who has been called "the man for others", our art, to have meaning, must exist for others."
I'd love to hear your thoughts...
love,
Tamara
