I was recently at the Mulvane Art Museum on Washburn University’s campus with my wife. We were viewing all the different pieces on display. I was taken back by an acrylic on canvas of a Magnolia tree in full bloom. I had never seen such a perfect shade of pink to capture the grace of a Magnolia blossom in summer. I was almost knocked backward when to my left I saw an oil on wood of a run down shack at late sunset. They artist had so perfectly captured the colors and shading that I closed my eyes and was transported to the scene. So perfectly they had captured the mood that I was overwhelmed.

I turned to my wife and said, “Can you believe how perfectly they captured this shack and these Magnolias? This artist is spectacular; only a photograph could do better. Because, of course, you can’t beat the original…” As I trailed off I was struck with an epiphany. The reason that these paintings were so inspiring is because they were an attempt to capture all the emotion of real art. 

And then it hit me.

What a fantastic artist is God?  

Sure, He had to make the universe functional for us, but the aesthetic paradigm? I then recall the Scriptures that say He has created all thing for His glory, and, since we are the caretakers of this creation, our enjoyment. All the beauty, all the majesty, all the splendor, the emotion, the awe, and rush–His glory manifested. And this, as we know, is the tainted version.

Tainted? This is tainted?! What was the original like?! And then I read that He will melt this earth away and created a new heaven and a new earth. Inexpressible. 

I have a friend who is a fantastic artist and good Christian. She often ponders how she can bring Christianity and her unique brand of art together. Those two are not as difficult to reconcile as most would posit. When we, as children of God, seek to use our talents to express concepts, and emotion, and stories through art–any art–we are doing a work for the kingdom. When I saw those paintings I felt the awe of the works of creation that inspired the works I was viewing. I began to thank the Lord that He made such beauty in this world. Beauty that makes me adulate and worship Him in a rush of awe.

When we strive to render those feeling in a piece of timeless art, we transfer those emotions to those years after us. I think of the music world; JS Bach once proclaimed, “I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music.” His reverence and awe of God inspired works that are still paradigms hundreds of years later.

If you are artistic: in music, in art, in poetry, in prose, in song–however it may be, do it to the glory of God. As you are blown away by the original, perfect, passionate artist, channel that into a visage that may inspire like awe in others. When our testimony of inspiration is tied to the author of inspiration we are able to not only worship our creator, but view the creation in its proper sense. 

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.

It occurred to me, although I have 20 or so posts, that I never explained why the description in the header for the blog, is ‘epiphany from cacophony’. They seem to be at odds, and certainly unable to work together:

Epiphany– a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.

Cacophony–a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds.

At first glance, it does appear these two concepts are at odds with each other; especially to gain an insight from chaos.

But this is how life works.

Life is chaotic. Religiously, the fall and sin is to blame. Non-religiously, life seems to have no rhyme or reason at times. We are pulled constantly from one thing to another in this techno-age, and randomness is valued like a Rembrandt.

My goal, is to tap the random string of things, religiously, in nature, and elsewhere, and connect them to us. For explanation, for demonstration, and for postulation.

The cacophony of life has an order to it, just as a surreal, 20th century atonal mess can turn into something…well, musical…I intend to occasionally pause the chaos, grab hold of that bad boy, and ride it into town wearing a tuxedo!

After all, Newton decided to nail down gravitational principles because an apple hit him in the head.  The microwave was invented because someone got their candy bar a little too close to a science experiment, and the infamous enigma machine of spy lore was cracked. Granted, the cracker cracked. I hope not to crack as I delve into the enigma of being; I instead hope to bring a poetic eye, a prose flair, and religious inquisition into the world around me. I hope to gain an epiphany from the cacophony around me.