This fresco by Michelangelo brings me such joy. The creative process in myself and in others bring me great joy. Why? Because the Body of Christ MUST be on the cutting edge of creativity. We must be stirred to be creative. Isn't it time? The world has excelled and passed us by so it is time for us to be a people who move out in originality and creativity. Enough said.
Fingers touching across a wide expanse. God Himself reaching toward man. Each of us are a masterpiece within the ultimate masterpiece of creation itself. We are created in the image and likeness of our God and by the Holy Spirit have Christ in us, the hope of glory. God breathed into us and a spark of life was ignited to finally and fully live. Is there life outside of Christ? No, there is existence. Abundant life is in Christ and only in Christ. He is life. He is life in us. He is reality in us. So why not start to truly live? Why the fear? Why the hesitation?
Just some thoughts about this fresco. The essence of the fingers touching but not quite touching stir within me an excitement to reach out, to grasp, to dream, to fulfill, to create. Christ in me, the finished work of the perfection of the cross. Yes I am perfect in Him yet He works His creative perfection out in me day by day as I am conformed to the Living Word. In this journey of creativity and passion to know Him intimately and passionately, I press toward the mark of knowing Him. It is a journey. If Michelangelo had painted the fingers touching......well.........to me that would be.......what is the right word? Flat? One dimensional? Simply can't get the right word.
But I go on. To me, just to me, the fingers touching would have been so predictable, so mundane. But the fingers reaching out to each other. How glorious is that? The inner resolve to know Him, to reach for Him as He reaches to us. The unexpected glorious journey of knowing our God. Yes I know what Scripture says. We are complete in Him and the work of the cross is finished. But that is not what I am saying. I am not ignoring the finished work of Jesus Christ. I am looking at the daily journey. There is a joy in the journey after you discover the beauty of grace. Too many rest in a revelation of grace which is so one- dimensional. We are saved and then we rest in that and walk out of a sense of duty, boredom, religion or law. Yet fingers reaching towards each other show the journey of the relationship of God with man through Christ Jesus. I may be extending my interpretation here of this fresco but this is my blog, right? :) I have always been a visual child and my point of view along with many others like me are so needed in the Body of Christ to stir them out of the apathy of conviction without creativity.
It took years for Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel. The creative process evolved day by day within Him as a masterpiece was brought forth. Throughout this time of creating, he was seeing and hearing and painting and reading Scripture. The seed of creativity was locked inside of him until the right place, the right time, the right people were positioned in time.
That is like each of us. We are a locked revelation waiting to come forth as a masterpiece. Simply said but perhaps each of us truly need to think about that. We are a masterpiece in being created in the image and likeness of our creator and we are becoming a masterpiece through the creativity that flows from our life in our journey in Christ.
