You see a crust; we see a canvas advertises California Pizza Kitchen. I love it. They desire to create pizza that not only pleases the palate but also the eyes. Their everyday work is their art.

I remember attending a tea with my friend Ginny. The setting was lovely; the food served artfully; and we knew the speaker loved what she was doing. Her topic was the many forms of beauty.

Often I look out windows to see beauty, God’s handiwork, his beauty. At home the evergreens and the Aspens capture my attention. Recently I visited Mom in NJ. The mature deciduous trees that surround her home in their early spring splendor are beautiful. The wide open spaces of the western deserts or the mid-west farmlands offer their definition of beauty. God uses his created beauty to speak his love to me.

My friend Gary and my cousin Andrew use their paintbrushes to add beauty to our world.  I’m in awe of their art.

 

Driving home I ask Ginny, What did you hear? Without hesitating she responds, I need to get back to my home. Ginny’s home is her canvas, her work of art. Her response spurs my thinking. For Ginny, homemaking is a pleasure; it energizes her, satisfies her; it’s her desire, her gift to others; it’s the artist in her, the reflection of God in her life.

Creating a beautiful home, using a paintbrush or serving a pizza are a few of the ways we reflect God. It is our gift to others.

Later I receive an email from her … I was blessed (by the tea) and continue to think about how I can make our surroundings beautiful…whether with flowers, a nicely set table, music, candles, or just an attitude adjustment! Beauty takes on many forms, eh? My friend is right.

“For we are his workmanship,”***
Ephesians 2:10a

The Greek word for workmanship is poema. Paul could have said, we are his poem, his work of art.

Although I too enjoy offering a beautiful home, housecleaning will never energize me. My canvas is different.

I love how personal and creative God is! His beauty and creativity are displayed in so many ways.

“Love of Beauty is taste. The creation of Beauty is Art.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Uncovering desire is the practice of learning how to look farther beneath the surface …
It may require time, space, and solitude to allow our souls to become quiet enough
to settle into what is most true … an important step to uncovering the art
we were born to make.”
Emily Freeman, A Million Little Ways

“For we are his worksmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10

What is your art, your offering of beauty to our world?

***Click here to read some words I wrote in 2010 on Ephesians 2:10.
***I consider writing is one of my works of art.