May. 8, 2007 - The Master Artist

Towards the end of our walk through the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, we walked into a long, thin, poorly-lit room shaped like a hallway.  Along one wall were benches and on the opposite wall hung the art, great globs of twisted wire.  “This is art?” I asked.  “Just wait”, I was told.  We sat down and waited.  After a couple seconds, lights came on.  The lights cast a shadow behind the wire sculpture.  Still, I didn’t see anything remarkable. Shine light on globs of wire and it casts a twisted wire shadow – big deal.  Again, my husband said, “Just wait.”  Thank goodness he has a habit of reading the program notes at these places.  Now the lights dimmed again, and were replaced by lights shining at a different angle.  I sat straight up and started examining each one.  Now the globs of wire were interesting.  The difference?  With this new direction of light; the wire globs were casting beautiful shadow drawings onto the wall.  Each wire sculpture glob cast a different picture drawing onto the wall.   One showed a mother holding her child.  That was my favorite.  Wow!  How did Larry Kagan do that?  I looked and looked at the wire globs on the wall.  I could not find the mother holding the child in the twisted shapes of the wire.  But, the evidence was in the shadow.  

Our lives are like the twisted globs of wire.  Before we meet God, our lives are like the twisted wires without light – bent out of shape by sin and pain, without purpose.  After we meet God, our lives begin to reflect the beauty of what He shapes (and has shaped) us to be.  Of course, we have to be willing to let Him do the shaping!  The result is growth, which is evidence of Christ.  As the shadow we cast changes, those around us will stop and watch in amazement or disbelief. Others will be drawn to His light.  And our own lives will be changed forever.

Our journey begins by continuously committing our lives to Christ and then seeking God’s purpose for our lives. We have to turn our twisted lives over to the master artist and seek His vision.  How do we seek that vision? We spend time talking with God through prayer and we intentionally turn over more and more of our lives to Him so that we will have an increasing confidence in Christ, commonly referred to as faith. Finally, we recognize that growth is change, and that the change comes from the inside out. The change comes from allowing more of His light to shine through us and cast the beautiful images that He intended, not just meaningless blobs. The book of Romans makes it very clear that we are expected to pursue righteousness – to pursue change.  The wonderful truth Romans also makes very clear is that God will meet us more than halfway.  The Master Artist makes the change happen.  Our righteousness--our changes toward righteousness--will come from Him!  How can you allow God to shape your life?  How can you allow Him to reflect His light through you?  What will God do in your life to facilitate growth as you pursue righteousness?