Fine Art

One of my favorite authors—in fact, my very favorite author of fiction—wrote most of her novels in the setting of England’s Regency period. From time to time one of her supporting characters had the ambition of being a poet or playwright. My purpose for mentioning this is that anytime it was suggested that the aspiring wordsmith should write something that would be popular and thus likely to bring them substantial financial reward, they most disdainfully refused to "prostitute their art."

It may be one of those clichés, but I’m beginning to "see" it. At the very heart of the creation of beauty, which is what art is, is something that flows out of the artist, and is designed primarily to express or give pleasure to its creator.

I think of the addition on my house. In spite of perhaps dozens of attempts by numerous people to sway me toward thinking of "street appeal" and "resale value," I created what I believed (correctly, as it turned out) would give me pleasure. It adds to my pleasure when someone else finds it beautiful, but it wouldn’t matter much if no one else did, because I am pleased in it. I’ve just planted a mostly-perennial garden. Others may like it—I don’t care. I created it for my own pleasure. Likewise, when I write a song, it expresses me at that moment. There is no other way for me to compose. When I write a blurb, I have no idea if it will be meaningful or appealing to you: I write it to express and reveal myself.

Now consider our creator. He is an artist, and He created for the two-fold purpose of expressing and revealing Himself, and for His own pleasure. You and I reveal God’s nature—all of creation does, in some way or another—but we are also here to bring Him pleasure. Women (for instance) were not created to please man; it wasn’t Adam who said it wasn’t good for him to be alone, it was God who said that. Eve was created for God’s pleasure. Adam was, too.

Tragically, in our art of every kind, we’ve taken to prostitution. We are desperately attempting to create something—be it a spreadsheet or a toilet or an electrical installation—that someone will want to pay money for. We’ve forgotten all about the lilies and the sparrows, and we’ve forgotten all about making God a priority, because we’re frightened that we won’t be able to provide for ourselves. We forget that God takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servants. Not the poverty of His servants, but their prosperity.

I frankly don’t know entirely how the Lord proposes to provide for us, but I do know that He has promised that He will. If we could only get a glimpse of our purpose—to reveal Him and to bring Him pleasure—and if only we could let ourselves live that, from our hearts.

We are the art of God.

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