Another Post About Art

   My dad hates art. I remember when I was a kid he would make endless comments about how stupid and pointless art was. I agreed only because I thought dad was always right, and I never thought I could have an opinion for myself. Plus if I dare say I like a painting, he would make fun of me; and I got enough of that without initiating it. But as I got older I realized I really love art. Like a lot. Now, I could go into the long stereotypical story of how an art hater raised a daughter who fell in love with art and her story of overcoming adversity to create art or whatever, but that's not my point. My point is that I didn't get my creative ability from my desire to rebel against my biological dad. I did get my love for artistic expression from a dad, but not him.

   I got it from my Father. From God.

   My heavenly Father loves art and expression and symbolism, and I think I got that from Him. Heck, I'm the product of His divine creative expression. Me. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are His workmanship. That word? It means "masterpiece." We are His greatest work of art. Then we have the whole freaking Old Testament, which is jam packed with symbols and things of the like. Take the temple for example; everything about it was designed a specific way. Everything from the measurements to the medium they used to build it. God had it planned that way for a reason. The ark of the covenant was made and that thing is just one giant metaphor. (Augustus Waters would be proud.) And that just gets me sometimes. Like there are times where I just sit and read my bible and want to smack myself in the face because its so boring because it just goes on and on about the way buildings were to be designed and how much gold to use and so forth; and then God does all these weird things that you think are just ridiculous, but if you take time to think about them, you will see that its God being poetic. Jesus, while He was here on earth, almost always spoke in parables; He told stories. He knew that symbolism was easier for us; at least, it always is for me. He was a masterful storyteller.

   He really is the greatest artist of all time. Just look around you. Look at all the beautiful people you meet every day. Look at the way the sky looks right now. Isn't it just...awesome?

   I get my love for art from my Dad. I'm slowly learning that that's the way I connect to Him. It's like father/daughter bonding time, in a way. To me, art is the way we communicate. I have never been good with words, and I think He likes using pictures. Art is the way I worship. When most people think of worship they think of singing at church on Sunday, but lately that just hasn't cut it for me. I create an expression, and I think God reads them. And really, He is the only one that ever could. Sure people can like my photography and like how I sing and how I dance, but the only one who could ever truly understand what those expressions mean to me, is God. He knows me. (Psalm 139:1.) And that takes the pressure off of me to create a flawless work of art; because far too often I get caught up in trying to please people with my photography and I get tempted to explain something that shouldn't be explained. People can't understand a lot of what I figuratively say because when they look at my pictures, they're eavesdropping on a two way conversation, so of course it doesn't make sense. It's not for them.

   God speaks to me through art too. For example, the biggest reason I love doing photoshoots is because when I look through my camera lens, I see people less in a human way, and more in a heavenly way. It's like God lets me get a sneak preview of how He sees us. And it blows me away every time.

   I just love how God works. I hope each and every one of you gets to experience God in a way that makes you get goose bumps. It's my prayer that you would find your way to worship; and for some people that might be singing and dancing, but for others it might be playing sports or running or building things or taking pictures. We all have talents and spiritual gifts that are vastly different, but they all bring glory to God. And that kind of strayed from my main point but that's okay.

   God is an amazing artist and I just love that. Really that's what I wanted to say. Those are just my scrambled thoughts on the subject, but if you have anything to add, feel free to comment. I'd love to hear from you. I also have a lot that I've been learning about worship so maybe I'll talk about that eventually. Thanks for reading. (One more follower until 100. How did this happen?! You guys rock.)

I forgot I had all these pictures to share! If you like my photography, you should like my facebook page. I post a lot of it on there. You can like that page via THIS LINK.

Sorry its taken so long to get a post out. I've been lazy busy. If you care to be updated, I'll do so another time. Tell me what you think of the pictures! The last ones were from my first prom session, so I was pretty nervous. Those are just some of my favorites. 

Okay this is the end of the post for real now. May the Force be with you!