He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Eccl. 3:11
Meditating this morning on the mysteries of the Creative Process, inspired by a colleague who wrote insightfully about nurturing his desire to "Listen". It has been obvious to me that in his artistic work, he has been learning to "perceive" better and better, as it has beautiful impacted his artistic expression...
I have been using that paradigm much lately when explaining "how the arts work" to people who are just beginning to notice their power, their allure, their ability to engage at the most visceral level:
- that we all "Perceive" things, but Artists are granted by God with that innate ability to see further, deeper, wider - its part of the prophetic nature of the arts... and true "listening" is part of the art of perceiving...
- and then of course there is the "Process" part of it - and that brings in all our filters, our experiences, the nuanced hues of our differing rainbows, all pointing back to the God of Restoration, but at the same time allowing us to put our own autographs on things as small "c" creators...
- and then "Production", that sometimes glorious, sometimes tortured process of giving birth to something that at once produces stretch-marks and relief, a product that comes from the convergence of those internal forces of perception and process, incarnating something that tells a story, invites a journey, confronts a stronghold, brings reconciliation - so many uses God has for the things He helps us procure...
And that leaves me with the beauty of Philippians 1:6 converged with Ephesians 2:10. Seems the Apostle Paul understood a bit about the Creative Process as well...
