Crafting Your Life

Over the last two days, we reflected on two master artists from the book of Exodus (chapter 31), Bezalel and Oholiab. Today, I’m going to make a giant interpretive leap here – from their lives to your life and mine.

If we all have this creative ability within us, and I believe we do (even if it has been latent since third grade); then perhaps – just perhaps it is possible to apply this artistic spirit to our everyday lives…

One of my favorite artists John Severson – said that his personal mission statement is this: Make it a beautiful life. Make it a beautiful life for yourself and everyone else you meet. He meant that beyond the art he created, but to make it a beautiful life for himself and others – simply by the way that he lived….  

In 1972, shortly before his death, Abraham Joshua Heschel said in an interview: “I would say to young people a number of things… I would say, let them remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Let them be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power, and that we can do — every one — our share to redeem the world despite all the absurdities and all the frustration and all disappointments. And above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live life as it if were a work of art. When you are young, start working on this great work of art called your own existence.”

I wonder what it might look like for you to live your life – to craft your life – as though it were a work of art…

I wonder what it might look like for you to make life beautiful not only for yourself but with everyone within your sphere of influence…. 

Well, that’s a huge interpretive leap from these two obscure artists to your life and mine. But, one thing we know for sure from this text in Exodus, is that creativity and imagination and an artistic spirit are an essential aspect of the human spirit – and honored by God. And when we use them, they touch the souls of others.

Today I pray that you and I would continue to appreciate art and artists as a gift from God. And may we recognize within ourselves, the ability to make life around us beautiful for all of those we come in contact with.  

Let us pray: You are the Master Artist, O God. You must truly love us to dazzle us with your handiwork on a daily basis: lofty snow-covered mountains, florescent pink sunsets, flowing cascades In all of this, and in the myriad of plants and animals across the face of the globe, we glimpse something of your creative spirit, a spirit that you have placed in each of us. We give you thanks and praise. Amen.