Sometimes, when I am painting, time gets lost in the process. I start working with color and texture, and before I know it an hour or two has slipped by. The process of creating art is very meditative for me and it’s easy to get lose myself. Creating art helps me to step outside of time while finding inspiration from within.
The passage from Isaiah invites us to think of God as an artist, in this case a potter. We, those who live and worship God, are the clay. We are God’s art. We are what God creates.
Yet for God, there is no passage of time, since God moves outside of time. God’s time is (paradoxically) really timeless. God is always working at us, shaping and reshaping us in the process of God’s artistic design.
It’s not just us mere humans, however, who are shaped by God’s hands, but the entirety of creation and of everything we see around us, the sky, the birds, the flowers, the insects, the stars, to the smallest of all creatures below the sea.
All is clay.
All is being shaped and reshaped every second, every moment in God’s timeless time. In every millisecond of all of creation’s milliseconds, these hands are at work. Time is not lost in God’s process. Time is and stands outside time itself.
Yet, in this miraculous creation of God, we, being mere humans, forget sometimes. Our burdens are deep, our tasks are endless. When we walk quickly thinking about what tasks need to be done, we forget to look at what’s under our feet or listen to the birds in the trees. When we daydream big, waiting for a perfect life, we fail to look up into the stars and beyond to see the majesty of God’s galaxy.
In our travels and busy lives this summer, let’s not forget to take moments to take in God’s art. Let’s pause to look at the sea, to watch the birds and squirrels in our yards, and to be thankful we are given a piece of the picture to gaze at. Let’s take moments to calm down after stressful days and simply breathe in and out. Close our minds, and imagine God’s hands at work shaping and reshaping our life, over and over.
May God bless this mediation.
Prayer:
Loving Spirit, open our hearts and minds to the wonders and joys of your Creation. Help us to find moments to pause…to look…to wonder. In Jesus name, we pray…Amen.