By April Terry (personal blog http://faithwarming.blogspot.com)

Last Christmas, I gave a Karoake machine to my brother’s family. He has eight children, each unique to his/herself, but one of the eight is especially quiet, preferring to be off by himself drawing pictures. Most days, we are lucky to get a single word out of this young man, but just look in his eyes and you can see something at work inside there. My brother reports that this is the one of the eight that has enjoyed the Karoake machine the most. Some might say that this makes no sense considering the shyness of this one, but I wasn’t surprised because I know that he’s got the heart of an artist.

Artists, by nature, are observers. They watch the world around them and seem always to be trying to make sense out of their surroundings. They are the ones who are looking for meaning in everything, God included. It’s no mystery to me that King David was also an artist long before Israel’s crown was placed on his head.

At a recent funeral for one of our seniors, the pastor’s message was about the Marthas and the Marys. We like to think that some of us are Marthas, busy rolling up our sleeves and taking on the next task, and some of us are Marys, sitting at Jesus’ feet listening for the beauty in the message. Of course, the truth really is, that most of us are both Marys and Marthas to a certain extent.  Whether we are more a Martha or more a Mary, being able to see others through the lens of an artist is a valuable and important virtue.  The artist’s heart often looks for the reason and purpose behind other people‘s actions and intentions. They are listeners and they approach their friends and acquaintances, not intending to change them, but rather to know how they work. It isn’t that artists always see only the beauty in others and in life, either. Often they are ultra aware of the darkness in some people and experiences, but they don’t let the darkness keep them from the experience or the person.  They reach toward understanding, often despite how painful it sometimes can be. 

I like to think that God works through artists a lot because they are aware of their surroundings. I think God can use the person who can look at the turning of the leaves in the fall and find poetry in it. Likewise, he can definitely use someone who can see the poetry in a dirt-covered homeless person as well as the sunshine in the smile of a baby.  The person who is too busy to see those things is of no use to God.  For me, that is the value of striving for the artist each of us carries within.  To see, good or bad, and not blind ourselves by not seeing the world that is going on around us.

Like the pastor said, there is an artist in all of us. We just have to take the time and make the effort to find our own inner artist and start making sense out the things that matter. Otherwise, the Martha will take over and we will find ourselves trying to straighten a hanging picture instead of appreciating content in the picture itself.