Artful Worship

So this weekend I am participating in an interesting church service. My mother and I are both artists. She prefers to work with clay and I prefer drawing. I like to draw mostly figures and portraits, because to me, people are fascinating. But on with the story here, my mother is actually having one of her pieces on display this weekend and a reception is being held for her at a local church. Well the pastor of that church has this vision for showing people how to worship God with other forms of art, besides just music. And that is where my mother and I come in. She and I are actually going to be doing our artwork as a form of worship while the pastor preaches I guess, I'm not really sure. He will be asking both of us questions about how we think doing artwork is a form of worship. So I have been thinking about this quite a bit and here are my thoughts on the subject. Referring back to my people are fascinating statement, I think that people are one of God's most amazing creations, if not the most. I'm not sure how many people have really thought about how awesome the human body is. Really, think about it for a while. Just contemplate how incredible your body really is... I really think the human body, in addition to many other mysterious and wonderful things, is beautiful and that is why I like to draw figures. I truly feel like drawing figures is a celebration of God's creation. I also believe that God gifted me with the ability to draw well, and every time I use that gift it is a delight, a credit, a glorification unto Him. It is also a delight to me, wich I believe is also pleasing to Him. Genesis 1:27 says: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (RSV) You know, God is an artist Himself. He made each one of us unique and special. We are all some form of an expression of Himself, being made in His image. I think that my drawing, and anyone elses visual art, whether it be abstract, realistic, expressionism, landscapes, pottery, sculpture, you name it really, is immitating God. And I can see no greater form of worship than to immitate the One who created us and loves us so much.

Isaiah 64:8 "Yet, O LORD, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand." (RSV)