Beauty

This week I have been contemplating beauty. I married into a family of artists! I love it! I have learned to appreciate art in its various forms...and not only the art itself but also the emotion, thought, and concepts behind it all.

Growing up I always had fun "doing art". Some of my earliest memories are doing art with "Aunt Lulu"...and  during my elementary years we had art class with Mrs. Walker. There were some that we all viewed as true artists, some that were average, and some that would sometimes come to tears in frustration. It's funny how those of us in the latter two groups began to say and believe that we just weren't artists.

A year and a half ago I went through a prophetic art class with a couple of friends. It was sooo freeing! We began to see that we were artists...that we had beauty to unveil. As we would enter into God's presence he would reveal His heart and we were able to release His heart through our art. It began to take on a much deeper meaning for me. I started to realize that no one express beauty like I can. We each have our own unique beauty to reveal...not only to God but also to the world around us. And in reality as we reveal beauty we are revealing the heart and nature of God to the world, as he is the true essence of beauty.

My sister-in-law Rebekah came over last week to help me with some paintings for the kids' room. She was sharing that it has been proven that when artists move into a really bad areas, region begins to change...if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense...beauty really does bring transformation...when God released His beauty into that which was "void and without form"...He created the earth and all the beauty it contains! What a challenge to not avoid or run from what appears to be dark and messy, but to instead release the beauty of heaven that we contain, and see the transformation it brings!

Elia's little art studio!