Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Art that speaks




My five year old daughter taught me a huge lesson the other day. She was busily coloring on a piece of paper. After she was done, she folded it up neatly and handed it to me. When I unfolded it, I saw a picture of a beach setting. I thanked her for the beautiful drawing and she went back to coloring. Only this time, she wasn't taking her time at all. She started scribbling on the paper with multiple colors. "What are you doing?" I asked. Her answer gave me huge insight. She said "This one is for Joy, this is how she colors." You see, Joy is 18 months old. Hannah is right, when Joy colors she simply puts marker to paper wherever it lands and lets it fly. But what amazed me was that Hannah didn't just make a picture that she liked - she contextualized it for Joy. She made a picture that Joy could "understand" so to speak. She spoke her language. Brilliant.

Ok God, I get it. Thanks.

4 comments:

I think that as adults we need to realize this. It's important to know what kind of language we need to speak to each other.... to our wives, our friends, and co-workers. I guess it really comes down to investing and learning what we need to do connect. Great story. Thanks for sharing!

Dude thats awesome. I stand amazed yet again at the heart God has given your daughter and the beautiful insight she gives to life.

I'll think of this next time I teach the youth.

great metaphor. might steal it to use with our worship department...

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