Having recently gone through Rory Noland's The Heart Of The Artist with the Hannaford Praise Team last Fall, I've encouraged us to look at ourselves as artists - both the good and the bad. Noland's book is quite good and reveals the challenges we artist deal with when serving God and working with artists in community.Recently I read a blog article by Mark Batterson which spoke of Jesus as an artist as well. Batterson wrote...
We don't tend to think of Jesus in artistic terms, but I think we underestimate how artistic Jesus was.
For starters, Jesus created the heavens and the earth. Looks pretty good on your artistic resume! But let me put it in incarnational terms. During his tenure on earth, Jesus spent most of his time as an artisan. He was in carpentry much longer than he was in ministry. Almost a 10:1 ratio. And I'm pretty sure he took pride in his carpentry craft. He sanded till the wood was perfectly smooth. He measured twice to make sure the angle was just right. He cared about color. He cared about contour. He cared about quality. And like any carpenter, I'm sure he wanted his work to bear his unique signature...
\I think we underestimate how much his artistry influenced his ministry. Read the gospels. Jesus was a wordsmith right? He chose words like an craftsman. Each word was measured like a carpenter measures wood. Any way you slice it, Jesus was an artisan first. And his ministry was shaped by his artistry."
The point is this. Jesus gave his best and we are called to give our best as well - a wholehearted effort for our master. As Dorothy Sayers is quoted, "No crooked table legs or ill-fitted drawers ever, I dare say, came out of the carpenter's shop in Nazareth."
May it be the same with us through the power of Christ!
