The Gifts God Gave Us

Where does art come from? How is it delivered? How is it received? How does the brain "go away" while the artist works? Does time become a different dimension during that process?

The art, the delivery of it, the reception of it, the brain's occupation and time's dimension during the process are all gifts that God has given.

Arts come from inside a person and involves all parts human: heart, soul, mind, body. It is delivered with paint and other materials manipulated, with words written, with steps danced with or without music, with the scenes and accoutrements of a play, and with the tones and timbre of rhythm and musical instruments and voice. The brain goes to sacred places during the art process. Only God Himself, the Creator of it all, enables these creative messages from artists. The artists could be called the little creators.
Time expands when the manipulations and creations unfold, when the little creators work.

The art of the little creators in all their media can glorify Him who made them. Will you? Shall we? Must we? Yes, for the groundswell is begun. The wave of art and faith is building and we ride it because the little creators are hard at work, producing art that unbelievers can read with their eyes and their ears and their hearts, and they can begin to know God. That's what the gifts are for. These art works are sacred. Thanks, Creator God!

An Artist's Prayer

Thou, O Lord, art most high above all the earth. Grant, therefore, Your strength and truth and blessing to all of us on earth who desire and love Your presence, as makers and viewers of art work. May we bring glory to Your Name by displaying Your excellence through the lives and gifts You have given us. I pray in the Name of Jesus the Christ, amen.

The Music of the Wind

I love the music of the spheres, the music of the wind on the fields and trees, the music of the shadows and the truth. I love the music of souls that hurt and seek the Lord in earnest for unselfish gain. I love the music of the loved ones gone on before me. I love the music that is made in fervent creativity and performed in honest expression. I love the music. I love the people. I love the instruments and the voices and the forces of physics created for this pleasure. I cannot wait patiently for the joy of heaven where all who love Him will sing.

Uncle Gilbert Gone

A Eulogy for Gilbert. A remembering and an honoring of his life.

This morning, August 24, 2010, Uncle Gilbert died. He was born on August 24, 1919. So he came to earth and went home to heaven on the same day, just 91 years apart.
This jovial kind man grew up on an Oklahoma dirt farm. His father was blind, his mother industrious. They raised Gilbert, the baby, Myrtle the second child, and Haskell, my father.
Haskell told me that when they all went out to work in the fields, they would wrap sugar up in a rag and give that sugar tit to Gilbert then put his shirt tail under the bed leg so he couldn’t get away or get hurt. A sugar tit.
The close family loved each other no matter what happened. They helped each other through all kinds of trials and heartaches. I just love remembering them all from going up to Oklahoma City for holidays. Without fail, the snow would start to fall after Christmas as I looked out the rear window of the pink station wagon as we drove home to Houston.
There is a picture of me, holding Baby Brenda, Gilbert’s only child, when I was five. I sat on Granny Armitage’s striped couch with that precious bundle. The two granddaughters, the brothers’ two kids. I had a brother, older, and Brenda had a half-brother, older.
I just want to say, so the universe all can hear, that Gilbert Wayne Armitage was a wonderful human being. Eyes always smiling, hugs always ready, agreement with men and life in his tone. “Well . . .” is what he’d say.

Wanna Buy a Farm?

 

Maddie Rayne Roam in Leon County

 

Then and Now

Yesterday the sermon dealt with same title. The impressing blessing of the talk was that I worry too much about the "then" when there Is just so much that God is going to do that I don't know anything about! So last night before falling asleep, I prayed with great rejoicing that from that day forward, I would not be worrying so much about "the Plan," because that is in God's hands! I keep walking and He keeps working!