Week Four

The Artist’s Hands

The Father’s Presence

The artistry of our Father God! An artist entirely absorbed, absolutely present. In a world that knows only too well the pain of absent fathers we are comforted by the presence of our caring, nurturing father God. Present in our lives.

These readings might not immediately make us think of an artist, but the aspect of artistry we are focusing on is this sense of deeply and truly knowing the artwork, being entirely present and connected to it — the way God knows each of us and cares so much about us.

SEEDS TO SOW: If you were to close your eyes and imagine God painting a picture — what would you see on the canvass?

Read Matthew 6: 5-8

God notices you

We are not below God’s notice — in our petty grandstanding or in our quiet humility — God sees us. God cares enough to register us with an artist’s eye for composition, to see how the picture is coming together!

Like an artist who has studied the colours and the canvas and the subject — God knows us each so well, our grain, our texture. God does not paint us from a photograph, God has us sit for our portrait — over our whole lifetimes!

Given that God already knows what’s on our hearts, what are the benefits of still speaking our prayers aloud?

Read Matthew 6: 24-34

Be in the moment

As a painter catches a moment in time, slowing us down to notice it — God invites us to take it in — to take it all in! To not rush off to the next picture, the next exhibit, the next anxiety — but to see this precious moment.

How has God used beauty and wonder to teach you about value and worth over your life?

Read Matthew 10: 26-31

Every hair on our head!

For God we are all foreground, we are all in focus, we are all rendered beautifully — we all fall under the loving care of our Father. We are in God’s hands.

Our Father God has an artist’s hands but also an artist’s eye — missing nothing.

Who can we share this message with — of their essential value? Who in our society needs to hear that they matter, that they are precious, that they belong and that they don’t need to be afraid?