FOURTH QUARTER 2020
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #10
DECEMBER 5, 2020
“EDUCATION IN ARTS AND SCIENCES”

 

This week’s lesson does a good job of pointing out that all true Christian education must approach the teaching of the arts and sciences from the biblical perspective. This means, keeping God central in all subject matters studied, linking them to the God Who is intimately involved in the origin and sustenance of all things. The lesson also points out that many of our educators, in all disciplines, have become experts in error by leaving God out of the subject matter altogether. Often, merely assigning token bible verses to a chapter of study is considered sufficient to include God in Christian education. However, this does not even begin to probe the depths of a subject unless the beauty and character of God, and His relation to that field of study, is explored to its depths.
 

I encourage you to review the concepts outlined in this week’s study. But I want to narrow the topic for this Sabbath School insight a bit. Even though I am a scientist by training I want to consider education through art. That’s right, art.
 

Is art even a discipline worthy to be considered a part of true Christian education? There is certainly much about the field of art in which God is left out and this is often the context in which art is viewed. Rarely is the study of art considered to be a discipline that puts God as the central figure. Consider these words about art education written by an artist:

“In the beginning God created...” and so should our children. If we truly believe in whole- person education, we must embrace all parts of our brain, the analytical and the creative. Not to do so, is like sending our children to school everyday with one hand tied behind their backs.

Creating art is a continuous process of problem solving and unlike most of what we learn in school—memorize and reproduce facts; fill in the blanks; and color in the lines. Art encourages students to push the boundaries, to ask, “What if?” With art we add another dimension to critical thinking skills.

The visual arts, like music, is simply another form of communication. God gave us a visual aid in the form of the Sanctuary to communicate His plan of redemption. In fact, He was very specific in the craftsmen chosen, the materials used and the application. The Tent in the wilderness was a handcrafted work of art, a reflection of the thoughts of God. Jesus taught using parables, pointing out images in nature and daily life to illustrate the kingdom of God. Visible representations to illuminate the invisible God. Sometimes the clearest form of communication is something visual, a map verses directions given over the phone. God wants to connect with His people so desperately, yet we tend to dismiss one of His most powerful forms of communication as frivolous and insignificant.

When we create art, we enter into communion with God in a unique and deep way. Time stands still as His hands cover our hands, heads bent together, viewing, observing, and problem solving. The ability to create is part of what it means to be made in His image.

Another artist wrote this about art and education:

The Enemy has a way of twisting what God has designed to be good and uplifting into something that is harmful and degrading. In relationships for example, when the principles in Scripture are valued and the Holy Spirit is allowed to work in us what we are incapable of doing in our own strength, happy harmonious relationships result. When the natural law of self-preservation is allowed to rule…well you know and have experienced the results. The same principle is true for art. It can be used for good or for evil; for the uplifting of humanity or for its degradation.

Art in Christian Education is important because God needs representatives to be His voice in the visual art dialogue. He has been left without a voice in the art community and we have neglected the unique opportunity to connect with individuals and convey the gospel to the world through the arts.

Making of art for God is an invitation and an opportunity to be used by Him for His glory and the uplifting of humanity. Just as He commissioned and used Bezalel, filling him with His Holy Spirit, to create and teach others to create the work for the Sanctuary, according to all that God commanded (Exodus 35:30 - 36:1), God can use consecrated artists today to help communicate His character and the plan of salvation to the world.

It is an opportunity to let the Holy Spirit minister to the hearts of all who encounter art inspired by and created for God… Ministry that occurs in the arts is not about what I do, but what the Holy Spirit does in the quietness of the heart.

Lastly, art is a medium that has the potential to bring one into contact with people one might never dream of meeting or who might never step foot in a church. “Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Savior mingled with men as One Who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, “Follow Me” (MH 143.3).

Have you considered that God is an artist and the boundaries of His creative mind show no limits save selfless love? “The Lord our Creator expends as much care, wisdom, and time upon the tiny flower as upon the great things He created. In the tiniest flower is seen a beauty and perfection that no human art can copy. The delicate tracery of the tinted rose, as well as the stars in the heavens, show the penciling of the great Master-Artist. The Lord would have us cultivate a love for the beauty in nature. He Who created everything that is lovely in our world would have us appreciate His work.” (BEcho July 2, 1900, par. 6)

Jesus appreciated this beauty. "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28-29).  Jesus pointed His pupils to the beauty of the lily, the product of God’s provision for the flower and, in turn, assurance that if God provides for the beauty of the inanimate plants how much more will He provide for them.

And while the expression of ultimate beauty is seen in the natural beauty of God’s creation, He does not consider the work of His creatures’ hands to be insignificant. Consider these words penned about Solomon’s temple and all its glory. “God gave David a pattern of the temple which Solomon built. None but the most skillful men of design and art were allowed to have anything to do with the work. Every stone for the temple was prepared to exactly fill its place, before being brought to the temple. And the temple came together without the sound of an axe or hammer. There is no such building to be found in the world for beauty, richness and splendor.” (1BC 1089.5).

In Psalms 8:30 the psalmist described the pre-incarnate Jesus as “the Master Craftsman”. I can’t think of any greater joy for a craftsman to see the product of his craft (us) enter into the same creative process and in turn bringing glory to the One Who made him.

And yet the products of our hands, whether word, music, painting, sculpture, or design, must ultimately point back to the Creator Himself. If it does not, artists simply become another expert in error and art degrades into a self-glorifying distraction that draws us away from the Master-Artist.

The servant of the Lord had opportunity to visit an art gallery where she penned these words summarizing her experience and observations.  “When I was in Colorado some years since, I visited an art gallery, and there were groups of people standing before the pictures as if entranced, and praising the human artist. At evening as I was walking through the town, I saw the glory of the sunset. The bright beams were shining upon the snowcapped mountains, and it seemed as if the portals of heaven were opened, and its glory were streaming through. Persons were continually passing along the street, but none looked at the sight. My companion and myself were gazing upon it in rapture. I could discern in it heaven’s beauty; I could see heaven’s glory shining from the gates ajar, that we might conceive the beauty of what was within. But the crowds did not look upon the scene. That is the way God is treated.” (BEcho November 19, 1894, par. 7)

Ok, wait a minute. Can you picture what is happening?  There is a breathtaking, real-time piece of art splashed upon the sky and everyone is passing by, going about their business, without so much of a glance. Can you imagine going into a gallery only to find everyone ignoring all the art and just checking their emails or Facebook accounts? And then she drops the bomb shell, “this is how God is treated”. How often is this scene repeated day after day, community after community? God is not noticed, ignored, passed by. The One Who made and sustains all that we enjoy, in all its beauty and splendor, goes unrecognized. The One Who emptied all of Heaven and gave all in the person of Jesus is made irrelevant.

“Oh, can we not discern the care of Jesus. His compassion, His tenderness, His grace that is without a parallel? Turn the eyes away from earth and earthly things, and let us contemplate the heavenly. Oh, that we would turn our thoughts and conversation away from self to Jesus, and by contemplating His character become attracted and changed into the same image from glory to glory. Oh, what matchless loveliness, what purity, what glory! Our thoughts need to be elevated, ennobled, sanctified. Why, we have all the provision made for us by our heavenly Father; and that we might be elevated and made pure and sinless, He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Believing is not the pretense of faith, it is full trusting faith, the merits and sufficiency of our precious Saviour to save our individual selves; and that faith is in earnest. It works by love and purifies the soul. A tame, lifeless assent that Christ is the Redeemer [is not sufficient], but is [He] my Saviour? Does my faith lay hold upon Christ? Does my faith climb up by Christ?” (Lt144-1893.90)

This is what all true art and true education, whether arts or sciences, must accomplish. Anything less limits God from creating and completing His masterpiece in each and every one of us.

My invitation to each of us is to let the Master Craftsman have His way in our hearts and minds and let Him do what He does best. “For we are His workmanship (poiema), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) May it become our passion to use every talent God has given us to personally point all within our sphere to the One Who is the Master Craftsman and Redeemer of our soul.

~Kelly Kinsley