Every once in a while a book comes along that is so God-timed it seemed the pages fell straight from heaven into your lap. This is one of them. My first thought when I looked up the author was, “How can she be so young and have so much wisdom?”
Here’s a small part of what spoke loudest to me. beginning with antique wallpaper…
“Just as the Montpelier restorers knew what Madison’s original wallpaper looked like because of an ordinary family of mice, we are meant to display who the Creator is through our own creating. Through our work, we point to him, describe him, and adorn him. We’re meant to be creative in imitation and honor of the One who is making all things beautiful. Christians, it seems, should be the most creative people, the ones who run straight into the mysteries and wonders of life, the ones who happily delight in beauty and use many mediums to point to the beauty of our King.
I read something somewhere that when you do something that feels like worship, you’ve found your calling. Even from the very beginning, writing felt exactly like worship. Like I was made for it. Like I was hitting an invisible bull’s-eye I’d not previously known existed. Like I was following a pattern. Like my heart was singing.
If creating is worship, it’s only about God. It’s about him, through him, and for him; it’s not for me or about me. There actually were selfish desires attached to my writing pursuits, so in order for me to write as worship, I had to crucify my expectations for results. Those hopes only turned my worship inward and distorted whatever beauty I hoped to create. We don’t create so everyone will look at us; we create so everyone will wonder at the Creator.
When I see beautiful art, when I hear beautiful music, when I see patterns and colors put together in fabrics, when I see pencil drawings or observe someone’s ability to play the piano by ear, I am amazed – not at the person who created it but at the One who created the person.
Their creativity makes me worship.”
~Christine Hoover, author of Searching For Spring