Keep Creating
My husband’s great grandmother painted. I have two of those paintings hanging in our home. These paintings aren’t on canvas or paper, but on flat pieces of wood cut into rectangles. She didn’t have a lot of money to work with, so she used whatever scrap pieces of wood she could find from her husband’s woodworking projects.
I never met this woman, but I can only imagine she had great love for her craft. She loved creating so much that she set out to paint no matter what her circumstances were. She didn’t get art lessons, and she didn’t always have the ability to search for inspiration in nature—rather, I’m told that she created from her own imagination and memory. She didn’t wait until the situation was perfect and she had every resource and tool necessary—created with what she had.
Her daughter (my husband’s grandmother) was an artist too. Every special occasion, whether birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, or Easter, she created handmade cards with her own drawings and writing. She even made a little picture book for our oldest son about a boy and his dog. She made bookmarks and postcards. As she got older, age made it harder to draw straight lines and write, but that didn’t stop her. She still kept creating, because it mattered to her. I asked her once if the scenes she drew were of things she’d seen. She told me some were, but she always liked to change them somewhat with her imagination.
These women never won awards or recognition for their art. It was never about that. It was for the joy. It was to put a smile on their loved ones’ faces. They created even when circumstances went against them.
Their art and passion is an encouragement to me. I’m not an artist in the sense of drawing pictures and painting, but I write. As I do, I often get bogged down with Instagram analytics, web page views, and rejections from publications and agents. I get frustrated and wonder why bother if only seven people saw it.
I also get frustrated when time doesn’t work in my favor. When I sit down to write, I long for peace and quiet to concentrate. But as a mom to three toddlers writing during naptime and bedtime, that’s not always a possibility.
Yet these women remind me to create anyway. It’s not about that. Those things are nice, but they aren’t necessary. If I truly love to write, if I write to add more beauty and joy to my own world and hopefully the world of others, then those things are only secondary. They’re an add-on.
I’m reminded of Paul who wrote: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him,” (Col. 3:17 ESV). May any hobby or work of art we do be in the name of the Lord Jesus, and as we do it, may we praise him for it.
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