A Caretaker and an Ambassador by Lorilee Guenter

After a winter that seemed like it would never end, the temperatures have soared. Yards are greening up. Fruit trees are covered in a profusion of blooms. Greenhouses display flowers in every colour you can imagine. Some flowers there await the gardeners creative touch in combining them. Others fill hanging baskets and planters of all shapes and sizes.

I have been working in my yard and garden for 25 years. It continues to change and evolve. I continue to learn. The process reminds me that a lot of time, skill and care is required to create those prepared arrangements.

I have been writing for less than 25 years, except for my journals. Like my garden, my writing continues to change and evolve.  Polishing pieces into interesting poems, stories and essays takes time, skill and care.

I continue to work to learn my craft by reading, writing and attending workshops. Like Bezalel and Oholiab in Exodus 35:30-35, others have been given the ability to teach. I benefit from them sharing their skill, wisdom and knowledge.

I participate, with God, in creating beauty in my yard with and oft critical eye. I need to pause and remind myself that it is not meant to be an ongoing to-do list. It is meant to be a place I can observe a small slice of God's amazing, varied, intricate creation. He causes the flowers to bloom in their time. He has invited me in as a caretaker of this particular piece of creation.

I participate in sharing a slice of God's story, His amazing, intricate, complex story. Sometimes in my writing I become focused on what isn't finished. Here again, I am learning to pause and reflect. My words teach me as I process the wonder of the world around me. Others inform me as I contemplate the words God called them to share.

When I put down my pen, and share my writing, I trust God will cause those words to bloom. He is in control of the time and the place they grow. I am invited in as an ambassador of His story of everlasting love, mercy and grace. 

Lorilee Guenter enjoys gardening, reading and more. During the summer, her and her husband often hit the trails at nearby parks. He carries a camera. She carries a sketchbook.

A Call to Create Beauty by Sandi Somers

Our prompt this month comes from Jack Popjes’ blog, “In Search of Beauty.”  He reminded us that God chose two men, Bezalel and Oholiab. He filled them with the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, understanding, knowledge in all kinds of skills, to make artistic designs and to create beauty for the Israelite’s tabernacle. God also gave them the ability to teach others to work as engravers, designers, and embroiderers (Exodus 35:30-35).  

Writing as Beauty?

          Yes!

When I suggested this topic last year, I hadn't thought of writing as beautiful. Yes, I thought a piece of writing was dynamic, the style was skilled, superb and brilliant. Images and metaphors were exquisite, sometimes melodic. But “beautiful” hadn’t entered my vocabulary.

Preparing for this blog earlier this spring changed all that.

I'm part of a Sermon Study Guide group at my church, a group that creates study questions for each sermon. We also take turns writing the sermon summary, reducing the essence of the sermon of five to six thousand words into a thousand words. I usually feel stimulated and engrossed in doing so.  

This particular Sunday’s summary was a challenge, as our speaker’s style was circular. He made a point, discussed it with a number of repetitions, and then circled back to the point. I spent a number of hours working on it. As I finished, the summary sparkled with authenticity, unity and coherence. It was beautiful.

That experience began my starting point for exploring beauty in writing and mentoring. It seemed that wherever I turned, authors described writing in terms of beauty. Here’s a sample.

“Thomas Jefferson admired the beauty of brevity, urging writers and speakers to do more with less.”

The Russian playwright and short story writer Chekov was gifted with “the ability to beautifully describe a scene by showing rather than telling.”

The testimony of a survivor of Cambodia’s Killing Fields was described as “something beautiful for God.”

“Don't just be the artiste, be a good craftsman”, the author Harold Best advised. “Remember that God makes things beautiful from the inside out…elegant …and in so doing you will join up with the mind of the One in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”[i]

Beyond working to create more beauty in my own writing, God has expanded my ministry of mentoring and encouraging others in their writing journeys. Much of this ministry comes from my own long and convoluted writing journey.

Grappling with writing issues has given me an understanding of issues that other writers face. Working through doubts about God’s purpose and plans for them. Second guessing themselves. Praying through questions. Developing and mastering skill and confidence. Seeing the love of craft blossoming.

Beauty grows as these writers discover purpose, direction, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

We’ve celebrated together.

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Now over to you. What does creating beauty mean for you and your writing? How have you sensed God’s Holy Spirit filling you as He did Bezalel and Oholiab? And/or how is He giving you the ability to teach others in the crafting of beauty?

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[i] Michael Card. Scribbling in the Sand. Downers Grove IL: IVP. 123-124