Creative people are constantly trying to add beauty to the human experience. It's what we do. It's how we're made. It's how we connect with God - the ultimate and only real creator. Let's face it, everything we do is imitation of something we have seen or heard, translated into our own interpretation. There is nothing wrong with that. The outlet of creative expression - whether it's music, writing, photography, painting, drawing, quilting, crocheting, knitting, sewing, sculpting, making jewelry or whatever it is we do - is an expression of the song that the Lord sings into our heart.
Over Christmas, my family traveled to Arizona to visit my parents. On the way home we visited the
Petrified Forest, one of America's most ancient expressions of nature's artwork. Scientists say that the trees that were fossilized are around 225 million years old.
I have never touched anything that old, so I just had to do it.
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| Petrified Forest |
The texture was as smooth like marble and the colors flowed together abstractly like a painting.
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| Petrified Forest |
I was completely enthralled by the beauty of the forest and when I touched that tree, a feeling of awe came over me. Awe, not only because the tree trunk was older than I could imagine, but because that no matter how old that tree trunk was, someone much more ancient had been there all along and who, by his word, had put into place all of the processes that produced that which we enjoy today. Just like creatives, the earth also imitates its creator and beauty is a natural result.
Here are a couple more pictures of the surrounding hills. Over time, water has washed away the ground to reveal the layers of rock underneath. Isn't it beautiful?
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| Petrified Forest |
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| Sweater Rock |
This rock in the picture above is not really called Sweater Rock. I renamed it because it inspired me to perhaps someday crochet a sweater or afghan in these colors. Wouldn't that be gorgeous? I think that it would be a suitable expression of gratefulness over the beauty that God has created, don't you?
What does nature inspire you to create?
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