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 splendid beings we are meant to be.
Today is the second Sunday after Epiphany. We remember Antony of Egypt, renewer of the church, who died around 356, and Pachomius, renewer of the church, who died 346. This message is adapted from “Made in the image of a creative God” written by Susan Schneider that first appeared in the August 2015 issue of Café magazine.
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