A Devotion for Watercolor Wonder

My daughter loves to paint. Watercolors, in particular. Tilting her head and sticking out her tongue, she surveys her handiwork. At 5, she hasn’t yet learned to be critical of her own work. With an approving nod, she’s already on to the next brushstroke. Red, then purple, an indigo sky and silver streaked sun.

She isn’t concerned about the outcome (though she’ll quickly tell you that black blob is a cat (NOT A DOG, MAMA). Her joy is in the process, the mess she gets to make, the freedom that stretches across the blank white paper.

In the same way, the joy I find watching her isn’t relegated to the painting that I will proudly display upon completion. I revel in watching her swirl the rainbow water as she dips her brush, her concentration as trees and flowers and houses and people appear at her demand. I love seeing her delight as she shows off her masterpiece,

The beauty that spills off the page, often onto the kitchen table, is mystery and holiness.

This past Sunday in the church, we celebrated Trinity Sunday. On this day, we name the mystery, though it is one we cannot completely understand or articulate, that the God we worship is Three-in-One, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.

In trying to understand the depth, breadth, and width of God, we are often left stumbling over our words. We have creeds, statements that we proclaim the nature of God. We have hymns, lines of lyric and verse that detail God’s attributes and praise God’s action and involvement in human history.

I love the written word, so I’m all about creeds and Scripture and song.

But sometimes, I need something before me, something my eyes can dance across. I need something tangible to help me make sense of the intangible.

One of the most well-known images of the Trinity in art history was painted by 15th century Russian artist Andrei Rublev. The icon depicts the three angels who visited Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18: 1-8). The painting is thought to symbolize the three persons of the Holy Trinity, sitting in serene conversation. Many interpret the icon to show the circular, connected, equal nature of the Trinity and the relationship between the three holy persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Whether it’s an icon or a painting, a sunset or a film, using our imagination to expand our understanding of God is just another way that we are created in God’s image.

In the Proverb reading for this day, we read from chapter 8:

 The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.

Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth--
when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world's first bits of soil.

When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.

(verses 22-31)

God, the Creator, calls us to his side as master workers, to toil and love and paint and pray, to find and make the beauty and wonder that spills off the page and the worksite and the spreadsheet.

What are you co-creating with God these days? Are you finding time to see the beauty and wonder in the process?

With you on the journey,

Chaplain Amy