Original Art

“For we are God’s handiwork (masterpiece) . . .” Ephesians 2

He was just fooling around. Playing, really. Dipping his brush in the paint, he let it go in this or that direction until there was an intriguing, unique piece of art on the canvas before him. Unlike other pieces he’d done, he didn’t judge this one. He let it be. Later that semester, the art student painted over the spontaneous work and created something assigned. It was conventional, like the others in the class, and he was commended for his efforts. Many years later, once a successful artist, the man found the old painting. Using the most current techniques and chemicals, he removed the painting he did for class and found the spontaneous work beneath. There was something about it, something that made him smile, and he framed the piece and hung it in his studio.

The story speaks to my life and, perhaps, yours as well. I believe we were all unique works of art, made in a spontaneous creative moment by God, the divine artist. Rather than celebrate our uniqueness, we strove to be like others. Whether by wearing certain clothes, following conventional career paths, going on the same vacations, posting the same pictures, or living in specific neighborhoods, we did our utmost to look like others (and then tried to be unique in all our sameness!)

I believe the time comes when we long for something more – not more of the same, but more of the one-of-a kind. Deep down, we long for our unique, authentic, original selves. We know he or she is in there, somewhere! The problem is there are layers of paint we need to remove. It takes work, spiritual work, to remove the layers of paint, and that work requires patience, and trust. It might take longer than we would like, cause reactions we’d rather not hear . . . but when the hunger is great enough so will be our strength.

May this be the year we stop adding, and start removing, the layers. Deep within us all is a unique piece of art. May we begin the work of finding it today.