Fingerpainting

I wrote this today for Kirkko ja me for our congregation's column.

We’ve had a rough start to this fall. Our daughter seems to be a virusmagnet and the first month in daycare consisted of three virus and two bacteria infections. Hence, mommy pastor has been away from work much more than she expected and is now in the demanding but also extremely interesting process of coming up with new ways of doing things so that deadlines are met and things are planned so much in advance that they allow me to be away, too, if need be.

And here we come to fingerpainting, believe it or not. I bought the colours to my daughter one day because I thought she might enjoy them and forget the misery of having an ear infection. I didn’t really expect to participate too much but of course I had to. And something wonderful happened: I found that place in me where creativity had hid itself from the critique of others – and myself.

My daughter would draw something and then we would look at it and decide what it looked like. Mommy got to draw a leg here or an eye there and all of a sudden we had a parrot or an elephant or a mushroom and so on and so on. We went on doing this for a very long time and enjoyed it very much.

When I was a child I used to love drawing, like I think most children do, but as years went by I’ve drawn less and less and less. With the arrival of my child I have been drawing for her and I have enjoyed her enthusiasm but it was certainly a big threshold to overcome to start drawing again because I kept thinking just how horribly bad I am at it.

However, the wonderful thing about children is that they don’t judge. For them it’s the greatest thing to look at mommy and daddy draw the simplest things. There is an enormous amount of grace hidden there for us parents. It doesn’t matter how well or badly we draw it is just important that we do draw.

I think this how God looks at us, too. It doesn’t matter how well or badly we do the things He calls us to do it is just important we do them. He will take care of the rest. That is what grace is about.

God is a creator, the Creator. When He created the world He created it from His heart. He looked at it and it was good. When we create something we bring forth something from a place in us that is made the same way. It can be the simplest thing like drawing wings to make a parrot but creating always involves making something that did not exist before.

Creating things can be messy business but that is also the fun part. In the adult world, however, it isn’t always quite that straight forward. There are expectations and deadlines and limitations and a thousand other things that can come in the way. But even so, in the midst of the messiness that is life, something new can come into being every time we stop trying to force things and take a step back and look at the picture from a different angle. A mouse can become a mushroom and, even if you liked doing things the way you did but no longer can, something good and rewarding can come of the fact that you are forced to change.

May the Creator of us all bless you
with all of His creative love
and Spirit
this fall.
Amen.