Look

(This talk was delivered to a children's art show audience on July 22, 2013. The children were instructed to put up their hands to form binoculars around their eyes every time I said, "look.")

LOOK!

“In thebeginning God created…” And so the best-selling book of all time begins. Out of nothingness, God speaks, and things begin. First, He created light and darkness. Second, He created sky and earth. Third, He created dry land between seas and plants and trees, and he looked. He saw that it was good. Fourth, He created sun and moon and stars, and he looked. He saw that it was good. Fifth, He created fish of all shapes in the oceans and birds of all colors in the sky, and he looked. He saw that it was good. Sixth, He created animals of shapes and sizes and noises, and he looked. He saw that it was good. He also said, “Let’s make people of all shapes and sizes and noises.” So He “created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.” And he looked. And he saw that is was not just good. We were very good.

And for thousands of years, humans have been doing right and wrong. They have been noticing and ignoring the creation of God, and have been both creating and destroying. Look! Listen as you hear our poets mention God’s creation. An ancient Greek poet Aeschylus said, “The power that holds the sky’s majesty wins our worship.” Look at the sky, he says. In the Middle Ages, an Italian poet Dante said, “Nature is the art of God.” Look all around at nature, he says. During the Victorian era, British poet Robert Browning said, “If you get simple beauty and nought else, You get about the best thing God invents.” Look at beauty, he says.

See, God is continually painting on his beautiful canvas his picture for you to look at and admire. He loves you, and is painting things all around you: sunsets, rain showers, green fields, blue skies. Look! Even rainbows, which contain every single one of the basic colors, are a reminder of God’s promise to all of his people. (Read this story for yourself in Genesis 6 through 9.) God says in Amos 4:13, “For the LORD is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his every thought. He turns the light of dawn into darkness and treads the mountains under his feet. The Lord God Almighty is his name.” When you look for God, you won’t see him, but you will see all the beauty he created. Job, in the Bible, found this out when God showed him all the things he created. Job said (in42:5), “I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.” Look, brothers and sisters. There is God! Remember that when you look for God, you won’t see him, but you will see all the beauty he created. And guess who is the best masterpiece he painted? You!!

God says in Ephesians2:10, “For we (people) are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Look! God painted you! And he did not paint you to do wrong. He painted you to do good. He did not paint you to tear up and destroy. He painted you to create. This summer, you created; just as God created you. You painted pictures; just as God painted you. And look! God has a good plan for your life. But you need God’s good plan, not your own plan. Ask God for the map for your life that God has painted just for you. Follow that map. If you paint your own map for your life, you will only find sadness. Look for God to create. Let God keep painting you into the masterpiece he designed you to be.