Art and other creative pursuits can peel away layers of guilt or denial or shame and leave us raw and ready to be made new. Art can open closed doors inside our hearts and minds without a word.
It is said that Italian artist Michelangelo saw his sculptures fully formed within the marble before he put even the tiniest chisel mark on the stone. He described his work as liberating the statue from the rock that surrounded it and held it bound.
Maybe that is how God sees us: beautiful, graceful works of art, trapped both internally and externally, unable to break free. Perhaps one of the gifts Christ gives to his people is to release us from the bondage of whatever holds us back from being our authentic selves. And maybe creative endeavors can help us do that. I wonder if our work as people made in the Creator’s image is to assist one another chip by chip, in emerging from whatever keeps us from being the splendid beings we are meant to be.
This message is excerpted from the faith reflection “Made in the image of a creative God” by Susan Schneider in the August 2015 Cafe online magazine.
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