God's favorite medium

Questions that had hung about my head like ghostly vapors became brilliantly rendered answers after I encountered Messiah. One such question was, what sort of artist made the world? How could one spend so much time around people who were deeply involved in the process of creation, without sometime asking that question? To not ask would be like going to the most fabulous feast, eating and savoring all the delights, but never wondering who the cook was. The divine creator has the same freedom and surprising imagination that I saw in my parents’ studios, only more so; he takes delight in the creative process just as we do, only more so; he loves his creation as we do, only more so. His mighty palette is vast. It includes not just the magnificent colors of the sunset, but colors that we can’t even imagine. He is poet, dancer, sculptor, finger-painter, choreographer, musician and more.

I often think that God's favorite medium is the opportunity. He continually invents opportunities for us to accept his invitation to draw nearer to him, using his basket of materials that includes human relationships, circumstances, natural laws, surprise and disaster, and getting his smock spattered along the way, I'm sure. When we make a tangled mess of things or when calamity befalls us, God steps in with a way to make lemonade out of lemons, that is, to turn disaster into an opportunity for us to discover him and love him.

In God’s studio lots of different projects are going on at once, some of them cosmic, some microscopic, some silly and some deadly serious. He is such a master that he can juggle the planets and at the same time place images of bulldogs in your mind and mine. Once your senses become attuned to God’s artistry with the opportunity, you begin to appreciate what a true master he is.

joseph's opportunity: a jewish story

You once made a painting in recognition of Joseph, the renowned interpreter of dreams from the Old Testament, called, “The Coat of Many Letters”. Joseph suffered enormous hardship and cruelty at the hands of his own brothers, who sold him into slavery. Yet he was able to come to a higher understanding and perceive God's hand at work, even in his misfortune. Joseph spent many years in the Pharaoh's prison, until one day the Pharaoh called for him to interpret some troubling dreams. From the Pharaoh's dreams Joseph perceived that a great famine would follow years of fruitful harvest. Joseph advised the Pharaoh to store up extra crops during the fruitful years in order to survive the famine. Joseph's dreams proved prophetic and he became a beloved friend of the Pharaoh.

The famine hit and Egypt was well stocked. Jacob sent Joseph's brothers to buy grain from the Pharaoh. When Joseph saw his brothers, he rejected them. But he came to understand that God had used his misfortune to create an opportunity to deliver his father Jacob and his brothers, the future twelve tribes of Israel, from death and destruction. So Joseph forgave his brothers, not only providing food for them, but giving them haven in Egypt. Out of Joseph's misery was born the Israelite people. Joseph said to his brothers,

Maybe the reason God likes opportunities so much is that it gives him a chance to interact with us. Opportunities take two: God to create them, and us to take them. If Joseph had remained resentful and had not endeavored to perceive the hand of a mighty power working in his life, God would have had to find some other creative way to fulfill his covenant with Abraham. In that case maybe there would only be three or four tribes of Israel instead of twelve, since the others might not have made it through the famine. And we certainly would never have heard of Joseph.

michelle's opportunity

I have a story about how God created opportunities out of disasters in my life. It took place 23 years ago in a Corpus Christi abortion clinic. I was pregnant for the second time by a man I barely knew. We were living in a bus in the back of a motel and playing music in bars. That man, Jerry, had spent the whole night prior to my abortion appointment sick with vomiting and diarrhea because of what we were about to do. That morning at the clinic I noticed the nuns quietly picketing outside. Jerry dropped me off, I paid my fee and sat waiting.

As I sat I thought about the desolation I'd felt after my first abortion. I began to evaluate the little life I carried. I wondered if I had the courage to change my life plans and adjust my path to raise a child on my own. God intervened by causing the abortion doctor to take a very long time with the person before me. God knew how much time I needed to think over these important issues. I sat for over an hour with my thoughts and during that time I had a change of heart. I came to a willingness to do whatever I had to do in order to have my baby. I leapt up and asked for my money back just as Jerry charged through the door, hoping against hope that he had come in time to stop me from aborting our child. He had been thinking too.