Good Art Makes You Think

“God’s Appointment Book for  3/8/10″

If there is a Force influencing my life as I experience it, how does it work?

In this painting I took a chaotic event (pouring ping pong balls onto a carefully-leveled panel) and spattered a layer of primary color each time. As the layers built up, and colored circle shadows began to emerge, I began to shift the locations of some of the balls, to fiddle with the randomness a bit to achieve a goal: for an orange circle to emerge from the chaos. Because I was starting with an event I couldn’t control, I knew the result would be hampered (or is it enhanced?) by the chaos of the balls’ locations. With each layer of paint I looked for which areas were tending toward the pattern I envisioned, and nudged a few of these units toward my goal. I limited how many spots of color I could influence each layer, and stayed within the pattern the painting had chosen for itself. Very gradually, my ‘will’ for the painting began to emerge, but not perfectly, not without deviation.

Part of the challenge (and sometimes frustration) I have had in trying to live more spiritually alive is the apparent respect God seems to have for my will, and the subtlety he employs to nudge his ideas and purposes into my life. If you’re omnipotent, why not push harder? Why not just dominate and get it done perfectly? Why, this all-powerful one even allows people to ignore and reject him!

I understand why God is often called ‘father,’ because I can see the same dynamics at work in my own parenting. When  my daughters struggle with a challenge, I’m often tempted to be heavy-handed and thunder down the ‘right way’ to do things. To state the Obvious Solution. To Make It Happen. But would this help my kids become confident, mature adults? TO decide and choose according to their own personality?

As I worked on this painting I felt more of how God is always conscious of our particular bents, and works subtly and respectfully to bring his patterns and colors about.