I heard Ann Voskamp talk of her life being art. That phrase stuck with me and kept pulling me in deeper. Amazing how God can use one single phrase to narrow down life…to wake us from slumber and put our feet back on the path He intended us to walk.
My life…this one solitary life…is an art form offered to the living God who created me. How do we lose sight of this? Perhaps the monotonous clouds the amazing. Perhaps vacuuming doesn't feel like art. Perhaps the mundane makes us pause and longingly look out the window and wonder what's over the next bend. Perhaps the weight of today's business stumbles feet that were made for dancing and skipping.
What if we were to truly grasp the idea that this one life…this one day…this one moment in time is a gift of craftsmanship we can offer to our Creator? Does He not delight in birds flying and bees buzzing and the trees producing the kind of fruit they were created to yield?
Cannot scrubbing the bathtub or watering the plants or bathing our children or ironing shirts be an offering to Him? And not just an offering but a beautiful mosaic.
One life lived purposely, even in the mundane, the daily, the monotonous, the duties... The idea of this very thing being ART does shift the paradigm. If every meal becomes a work of artistry, even the meager can become grand. If every chore is entered into with fingers and soul bent on producing something beautiful and unique, would not every crevice hum?
Why would we simply survive day to day, getting through the to-do lists, when we could choose to instead thrive? To CHOOSE to be an artist with this very moment, this breakfast, this load of laundry, this sink full of dishes, this story time, this science lesson, this day, this trial, this season.
And remember the servant who was trusted with a little. If we are faithful with this little we have already been given, He will entrust us with more. He has to test us and prove us in the little things to prepare us for even larger territory.
Eric Ludy pointed out so fervently this point in a message he recently gave. Was it not King David who was told he'd be king but then sent out to be a shepherd? He shepherded those sheep with skill as if he were shepherding a nation…faithful in the little things. He was tested with a lion and a bear before He was sent out to defeat Goliath. And all these trials and hardships and monotony of shepherd life were testing grounds to ready him for a broader range of leadership…kingship.
Today let my life be an offering...a work of art…in the little things He has given me to do this day, this moment. Let me be tested and proven faithful to not only do those little things but to do them beautifully, gracefully…as a craftsmanship to the one who gave me breath. It is in these little things that we are being prepared for even more Kingdom work.
