When did every Christian become a Jew? Every Muslim become a Christian? Who knows who becoming a Muslim? What "New World" as "Family," as "Household," now looms at hand, and at mind? Miracles happening while we're yet ensconced in self-interest, self-investment, no world before ours connected in such opportunity, such obligation, to know and be known, relate and be related -- Everything is everything! Everybody is everybody!
Yet David trying to hide here, building self House of Cedar, coming in from the cold, from relations frozen in maddened mistrust, trading tent in upwardly mobile direction, wanting to do same -- in shame? -- for God? Whom we still share with nomads and shepherds? Outdoor God of all open spaces, in and around? Who becomes flesh and dwells among us? Pitching tent, booth, hut, shack in our assorted midsts? Neither lingering long in any one space, nor attaching to any one people? Enduring all seasons, directions, elements, weathers? Nothing human, about us, happening to us, any more alien than anything naturally is?
Relinquishing all removal, all isolation, distance and ignorance of us, detachment and safety from us, releasing Only Child, Every Child, into fearful, murderous world for us, submersing in state of "sin," more like "struggle," wont to say now, at stake no longer sharp separation, some into bad, but subtle survival, all into human -- What God of Job, of Jesus, seeks indoor solace?
We're now together on this -- insiders, outsiders -- house-builders, tent-dwellers -- both! Christ tears down the wall, the distance between us -- and that means all of us! -- for God in Christ plays no favorites -- with any people of any faith or nation any place in this world. God repeals the very code that puts some over others! God starts all over -- creates a new human in a new world -- a fresh chance for everybody! We are made equals again in Christ -- no matter who we are! We partake same Spirit -- who gives us all gifts, all graces, all sacraments, all solidarities! To share for the common good of the whole -- in fact, the whole human species -- and all other species as well!
This is the Jubilee, once and for all! This is the only "home" God has made for us in Christ -- in whose very body we all belong -- together! -- no matter how, or whether, we name "God!" Every one of us in a part -- every one has a part to play! The tent of God has become our own skins! God uses all -- no matter how we get here. No matter how long we take. No matter how many false starts, wrong turns, dead ends -- God is not done with us yet! God is building us brick by brick. (Paul and Me)
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"Not everyone can be a great artist, but great art can come from anyone." (Ratatouille) Few think of ourselves as artists, yet anything we love doing, and try doing as well as we can, becomes art with us: "We know more than we know!" (Beverly Shamana, et seq) Each Created, in Creator image, for Creativity! Something worth expressing "scribbled on inner cavity of our bones!" Even creative recycling, what others call junk, form in itself, as we are.
Till we go off to school, ninety percent showing "high creativity;" between ages five and seven, dropping to ten percent! Adults letting down to two. Creating from nothing, ordering chaos -- or chaoticizing too much order? Selecting, combining, existing elements into new things? Light out of darkness, life where none appears yet to be, pathways to holy, to worldly, to selves and to others, doing without neither potter nor clay: "Every person is a special kind of artist, and every activity is a special art."
Sankofa bird of West Africa: "Go back and fetch what you forgot," to roots, to origins, ancestors, reclaiming Source, resources, gathering, honoring best past has to offer, forward in new, empowering ways, neglecting no history, flown or on wing; in art as in life, best-meant institutions of early life -- family, church, school -- even in spite of selves, "saving" us from own creativeness, solemnizing free-spirited troublesomeness?
Sankofa flies forward while looking back, egg that is future treasured in mouth:
"A heart embellished with two circles that meet in the center." Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" -- "Healing power that comes linking hands across Sankofa bridge with ancestors who, like hers, trod in the dirt of history." How might our history/histories/herstories heal?
Bezalel constructing God's dwelling among us, where we come seeking Source and resources, with every kind, craft and artistic design -- gold, silver, bronze, wood, yarn, linen, wool -- We find it, we name it, it can be used! Where "kairos" meets "chronos" lies "creos," gifts offerable, by grace, meet gifts receivable! "IT IS GOOD!" Whatever it is, however it's done, "Love Made Visible."
The persistent love of God speaks to us in the language of our heart -- in dreams, music, clay, canvas, the wind, the mountains; through color and stones; and we learn again that creativity is a collaborative process between the Spirit, our gifts, and our yes. Our part of the process is to watch and pray -- to listen and be attentive to that divine presence, the voice of the holy, the flap of angel wings and notes in the breeze. Then we act!
God "painting with crooked lines," our creativity one shaky paintbrush! "Art" manifesting "connection," piece by piece, peace by peace, aesthetics of ethics, corralaries of communion, community, re-membering, re-fitting, re-joining, AIDS-quilting a common life, Whole New World, New World Whole.
Create your own official title. Put it on your refrigerator door, your license plate, your office door, your lunchbox: Artist/Engineer, Artist/Gardener, Artist/Father, Artist/Artist, Artist/Cook, Artist/Punster, Artist/Videographer, Artist/Birdwatcher, Artist/Calligrapher, Artist/Bookkeeper, and so on. [How do we name our own art/s?] Jesus said let your light shine . . . .
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