As you know... I am an art lover. Somehow, I think we see our God more clearly when surrounded by the people who let their imagination run wild with unusual, unique creations. A creative spirit that has been set free delights us all with the wonders and wows.
One goal of this trip to Traverse City was to get to The Village at Grand Traverse Commons during business hours. Our last visit, only a few things were open, but we fell in love walking the halls of the old state hospital.
The building once was home to many with physical and mental health problems that families could not ... or would not ... care for at home. Now, it houses shops, dining, two bakeries, a coffee house, wine stops and it holds a gallery of the Traverse City areas finest artisans in shops and walking the halls.
This little puppy captured my affections with his shaggy mess of a mop. He is sculpted out of old book pages. Each strand of hair is rolled tight. I cannot imagine how many hours were spent rolling and attaching each piece. He wanted to follow me home, but he was appropriately priced as art... not a craft. He was perfectly charming while guarding the halls and greeting visitors.
The story of the fight to save the historic buildings is written down with pictures on the walls for visitors to read with a museum like quality. The beautiful metal gates, refurbished from the hospital days, now seem to create a sense of stepping back to touch history while adding a unique charm to shop openings.
What was once a place of sorrow... is now a place of joy, Michigan style.
It is much like how we see the empty cross of Jesus Christ as a symbol of new life, forgiveness and hope. Seriously, who wears symbols of torture and death with such passion and conviction? Okay, some people do, but typically those who do are expressing deep pain or long steeped anger and personal suffering. Believers wear the cross in victory! We wear the cross with new freedoms, daily victory and great hope.
Jesus’s resurrection changed everything, including the meaning of the cross and the emotions it would evoke. Even death on a cross. A place of death became a door... or a portal. Like the final plague in Exodus 12 - three spots of lamb’s blood on the two posts and top of the top door beam, causing the death to Passover the Israelites homes, sparing their firstborn sons.
Look what God did? He wove into his plan a mirror... an echo... of the Passover. The three spots of blood on the door during the exodus with Moses and the blood on cross, inverted this time, as God as initiated his redemption plan or is it a coincidence?
The first Passover... the triangle of blood points to God, seeking his grace sparing the sons of man before fleeing Egypt with Moses. The second time, during the Passover week remembrance... blood spots connect to make a triangle pointing down, as God poured out and pointed down his amazing grace like a funnel, forgiving all who would come, repent and seek has face at the cross of Christ. Now, lay one triangle over the other and what do you get? The Star of David.
Please note... today’s pondering thoughts come from several different readings. Not my own original inspiration, yet as they come together I find myself in awe of God’s puzzle pieces. Do I see it as coincidence or intentional? My choice.
I simply marvel at the possibilities of intentional detail in every movement of the hand of God connecting moments hundreds of years in the making. Thousands of years into the love story between God and his messy masterpiece... us.
Can we hide from the God of the universe?
“Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord.” -Jeremiah 23:24
His ways are not our ways, but he loves to leave us clues to help us unravel his greatness. He celebrates our personal quest to find him and says if we seek Him with our whole hearts, we will find him.
He is like the artist who carefully designs and executes every detail.... understanding the medium... with our weaknesses, and strengths. He is the potter and we are the clay. Free-willed, flawed and faithfully tended are we by his loving hand.
Today, I am grateful for sculpture artist’s attention to detail.
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