A column in which Marzanne Slabbert explores the enigmatic fusion of faith and art in South Africa. Join her on an artistic journey and explore the many ways in which God is using the visual arts!
Definitions and Quotes
ChatGPT: “Awe is a profound feeling of reverence and admiration, often mixed with fear or wonder, when encountering something extraordinary or powerful. It inspires humility and a sense of being overwhelmed by the grandeur, beauty, or significance of what is observed.”
Google: “adjective. If someone is awestruck, they are very impressed and amazed by something. [written] I stood and gazed at him, awestruck that anyone could be so beautiful. Synonyms: impressed, shocked, amazed, stunned” – Collins Dictionary.
CS Lewis: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
To be in awe. To be awestruck. Something, someone, or somewhere that is mind-blowing…
Believing like little children
Imke is in her own world, halfway between washing a small porthole window with an earbud, well on her way to Neverland…
But her eyes are wide open.
Zoomed in on the task at hand she pays little attention to those around her. Now and then she stands up and makes her way to the main table where the mushroom clay lamp is; inspects how something has been done and then hurries back to continue working on her own – adding and taking away as The Master Creator leads her; additional stars, little daisies pressed out of a mold…
With dirty clay hands, rubbing her nose, she says, “I wonder where it will stand?” “Maybe on my beside table…” she answers herself aloud. “Mommy said, I can take mine to my hostel room next term!” One of the other girls some distance from her, excitingly shares.
Imke smiles and only her starry eyes hint at the continued conversation around the table of her inner world. I wonder what she is thinking. Whatever it is, I sense it’s good, innocent and carefree. She is delightfully in His Presence, in the land of possibility and creativity…The Land of Awe.
Heavenly conversations
“How will it be?” “Heaven I mean.”, my son asks one night around the dinner table. (This was quite some time before the creative workshops I hosted for the kids at Pretty Gardens this past holiday.)
“For one, I know there will be no sun. Jesus is the Light. And I know there are pearly gates of thanksgiving and praise! And glass floors and an unending river constantly refreshing everything. No tears, no sickness, no decay or death. Only joy. And lots of bright and beautiful stones and many many people — God’s people; His flock. And a biiiiiiiiiig Tree of Life: Jesus. And of course the Father and the Holy Spirit too!”
On another dinner occasion, I askingly told my husband: “Can you imagine how beautiful the colours will be one day in Heaven? Everything will be in its purest form! And fruit… how wonderful it will taste? I don’t think we have any idea how a real apple or banana tastes… I can only imagine that everything here is nothing even close to what it is supposed to taste like; or smell or look like!” And what about steak? We laughed. Thankfully, my husband shares my sentiments on faith and the Promised Land.
I often think of that question my son asked. And the other dinner and Bible conversations we had. I remember how we drew out parts of Revelation as we read it (when he was 4 or 5) so we could both understand it! Now, it seems he has left that place of wonder and awe and entered the realm of peer pressure, self and hormones.
One of my friends once said in her best Afrikaans: “Hormone is demone!” She was referring more to PMS but I think those hormones (or demons”) are all related 🙂
Just so, you know, this mamma is praying and believing that her son will return to His Maker! Just like the Prodigal Son. I continuously pray that the Holy Spirit knocks on the door of his heart and cleans that porthole of his understanding just like little Imke did to her clay mushroom house.
Key verses
Awe: “The fear (awe) of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied, And years of life will be added to you.” – Proverbs 9:10 – 12.”
Porthole: “And [I pray] that the eyes of your heart [the very center and core of your being] may be enlightened [flooded with light by the Holy Spirit], so that you will know and cherish the hope [the divine guarantee, the confident expectation] to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints (God’s people),” – Eph 1:1
Praying: “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” — John 14:14
Tricks of the enemy: A warrior like David
Recently I have received unexpected, heartbreaking news — the type of soul-destroying news that can pull you away from the land of awe, and give you over to the trenches of sadness and hopelessness — all in one week! This is the place of awful — the place of dismay. The valley…
I had to deliberately — and I am still in the process of — change my posture, retrace my steps, look up the path of the Psalms, and slowly, verse by verse, day by day, go beyond my current state — back to the fountain of Grace. I know, I have to not only receive His grace but also to extend it. However hard it might be.
Furthermore, I have to ignore the luring voices of mistaken identity who seek to pull me toward spiritualism, energy fields, nature and escapism, as I see happening to so many artists and fellow pilgrims around me. And I must put on the armour of God as described in Eph 6.
What it all boils down to…
The central part of the menorah is the Awe of the Lord. There is good reason for it. Let’s choose to seek out the Lord. To know Him in all things and bring glory to Him — whether in suffering or in prospering; in despair or happiness; in wandering children or happy returns; in receiving devastating news or good news.
Let’s choose to trust His processes, and like David, continue to run to Him with all our might!
Furthermore, let’s create, as artists, from that place of Awe: with our eyes fixed on the Author and Finisher of our Faith: Jesus Christ. Just like little Imke! Zoomed in on Jesus and the task at hand, for which He has called us.
Yours in art and in awe!
Marzanne
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