How Colorful?
How colorful would you describe God to be?
Is it in shades of browns, greys, and black or even colorless? Do the browns, greys and colorless represent God being indifferent, careless of you, or a totalitarian punisher or judge?
Or do the shades encompass the rainbow; from blues and reds to yellows and greens? Expressing creative care, personal attentiveness, and complexity.
As an artist, creating an artwork monochromatically is a great way to learn about light and color that can create shapes in a composition of values….and that is how I started out in my relationship with Jesus. Who is He? What did He do? It built a foundation of intellectual understanding about his morals, perspectives, values, behaviors.
As in any artwork, a more intricate beauty happens when that monochromatic picture, is developed into a multicolored picture. A new depth is noticed. New points of view are developed. Relationships are formed, between structure and utility. More creativeness and expressiveness are found.
Like mentioned above, my logical-based relationship with Jesus took on new colors, dimensions, and depths, as He and I experienced life together. It became a relational, experiential relationship that emotions, thoughts and trusts, began to fill in new colors or replaced the foundational greys and browns.
“What if we look at the natural world and begin to consider the actual power and diversity of what we are dealing with. What if we begin to see that “thy will be done” is an expansive and not a constrictive concept. What if we start to realize that God’s will for us is that we get larger, not smaller?” – Julia Cameron “Faith and Will” pg 136
Examples of mandala’s found in nature or man made.
Below you will find a mandala that is able to be printed off and colored.
Using the mandala drawing found below, color in the top half with how you view God to be. Is He more of the greys and blacks and browns? Afterwards, color the bottom half of the mandala as creatively and colorfully, as you can. Meditate for a few minutes on the differences between the two halves that represent your view of God.
How does experiencing the expansiveness, creativeness, and personal care God has for you change after this exercise?