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Inspiration ...

Thursday, Feb 23, 2017. Sometimes there are days which are a real inspiration. They already start good - when your night has been silent, when you had plenty of sleep and you wake up full of curiosity about the new day. And then, the day continues, you go through it with open eyes, with an open heart, seeing people and things around you, beautiful and great!

Art in Action …

I had such a day yesterday, and it is good to note it. It is good to put it into perspective. It was a day fully calm, yet full of life. I spend several hours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Tokyo - after a late breakfast in my appartment. There is an exhibition on Tizian, the Italian painter from the 15th century - with most beautiful images from the whole Italian school of the Renaissance. It was a tour into beauty, a tour into history, a tour through time!

Also, I there is a large exhibition of various design schools - with current art and design of young people. I was even more inspired by this young art. It was so dynamic, explorative, diverse. From comics to modern housing, design of theatres, cafes or statiums, to toys and marketing campains - all was there, in a broad and dynamic mixture. I would like to give thanks to the Lord for all this, for the encouragement which it contains, for the beauty, the ideas, the forms, shapes, colours, functionality …

1 A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! 3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his;1 we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100)

Role of Art …

We need to think and talk about the role of art. Humans are creative - it is a gift of the Lord. Does God like art? I think he does quite a lot. When his temple is built in the book of Exodus (chapter 31), it is the spirit of God giving artistic skills to his people. We are made in the image of God, and his creativity is mirrowed into human creativity. It is a reflection of his beauty and power.

We can be children of the most high, living our creativity. We are given skills to do, to build, to shape, to invent. We are given these skills for the benefit of the community - to serve others with it. Some can organize, others can administer, some have skills to manage, … there are talents in the social area, in counceling, medicine, communication. There are talents in music, in painting, in design, in visual arts …

Find your talents and skills, and develop them, and then use them for others. Give them to others, as you have received them: as a gift. We are made to give to one another. We are made to love, to play and to serve. God in father, son and holy spirit is such a serving community - and we are invited to enter it and to live in it - with all the beauty of this world, in nature as well as in our industrial world, in art and beauty, in culture and knowledge, with our personal skills and talents. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts