September 9th

The Invisible Made Plain

             Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.

Romans 1:20

            There is artwork covering every surface of my house.  It is on our walls.  It is on our tables.  It is on our floors.  My desk regularly has to be excavated in order to be useable as projects and papers and pictures gravitate there daily.

            How do you tell what someone is thinking or feeling or how they see the world?  Look at the artwork that they make.  It is true of my autistic son just as it is true of my omnipotent God.

            Paul begins his letter to the Romans by saying that everyone will be called to account for what they did with their knowledge of God.  Even people who have never heard the name of Jesus have seen God’s power and His character through His creation.  The mountains testify to God’s power.  The rain speaks of His wisdom.  Rivers, lakes, glaciers, volcanoes, insects, fish, lightning…they all point to the majesty and creativity of the Almighty.

            My son makes pottery.  He has made drawings.  He cooks.  He assembles craft kits.  He tears things apart and builds inventions.  He builds lego sets…so many lego sets.  Each of these creations reveal a piece of what is going on within that head of his.  What does he build?  How does he build?  When does he follow instructions and when does he make something original?  When he draws or when he cooks, what is at the center of his piece?  What elements go well together in his mind?  He never comes out and says, “I drew the bird to represent beauty and isolation,” but there are clues to be seen.

            The question that I always have as a parent is, “Why?”  Why did he draw one thing and not another?  Why did he take all day on one project’s meticulous details but sloppily rushed through another?  What was he feeling or thinking that led to this?  Sometimes the answers are as simple as he was not in the mood.  Other times the attention to fine detail was calming and focusing and the materials felt good against his skin.  Other times he was just trying to follow directions.  Sometimes we just do not know.  But I look and I listen because the truth of my son is leaking out into the world through the works of his hands.

            Just like with his Heavenly Father.

           

A moment to reflect:

How do you see God’s qualities through the world around you?  What could you learn about your child through their art?