Image: Spatter paint technique on a painting designed to look like red brick. From https://worldbydesign.blogspot.com/2014/05/spatter-is-magical-visual-texture.html
Have you ever been embarrassed by a photograph? When I was a little boy, someone snapped a photo of me backstage at Jones Hall. I was about eight years old. I was in costume, makeup included, and while waiting to go on stage, was admiring a Santa’s sleigh filled with prop-toys. The dolls and blocks and balls and other things had been designed and built from scratch, then painted in the spatter-paint style I would come to learn was common for props. Such painting made things appear less flat to the audience. Viewed up close, every prop, whether a streetlamp, snowman, or a life-sized cross, looked like a spotty mess of pointilism. But if you stepped back a few feet, the pixelated dots blended to form a single well-textured hue. It was amazing![1]
Unfortunately, the moment I heard the camera shutter, I was holding a huge baby doll, looking closely at the spotty paint, like some kind of scientist studying cave drawings. But you won’t see a scientist in the photo. In the photo you simply see a doe-eyed little boy with eye liner and rosy cheeks admiring a little girl’s doll. Why couldn’t they have photographed me a few seconds earlier, when I was clutching the over-sized football?
In the early 1970s our minister of music created a Christmas Pageant too large for the downtown church. We rented Houston’s Jones Hall, a 3,000-seat concert hall and held multiple performances. The Houston Christmas Pageant became a huge production, an annual must-see for many people in the city and beyond.
Several years after the picture was taken of me holding a doll, I sat down and read the program for the Christmas production. It listed the names of hundreds of church members. There was the prop team, the lighting team, the makeup team, the costume team, the production team, the animal crew, the food team, the dressing room team, the ushers, the ticket sales team, and more. I remember seeing my mom’s name on the ticket sales team and my dad’s name on the stage crew. I was astounded by the variety of volunteers. It seemed like no matter what your skill or hobby or interest might be, there was a team for you.
The church is like that. No matter what you enjoy, or what your skill might be, God has a place for you. Sometimes serving God means completing a task with which you are quite familiar. Other times, it means learning something new, such as directing cars around a parking lot, providing security, or greeting visitors as they enter the building for the first time.
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving timber, to work in all manner of workmanship’” Exodus 31:1-5.
God gave Moses instructions for the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the table, the candlesticks, the altar, the priests’ clothing and more. Then God told Moses whom to place in charge: Bezalel. God even named an assistant for Bezalel, Aholiab (Exodus 31:6).
These two men would oversee multiple crews working on numerous projects simultaneously. The project would be huge, a task larger than any one man. This would be the greatest work of their lives, the one thing they could always say they were a part of: the construction and dedication of God’s tabernacle and all its contents.
For six months, the crew worked on nothing else.
“And Bezalel … made all that the Lord commanded Moses. And with him, Aholiab … an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and in fine linen” Exodus 38:22-23.
They built everything, “as the Lord commanded Moses.”
“According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. And Moses did look upon all the work, and behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it. And Moses blessed them” Exodus 39:42-43.
Application?
So what? You may ask. How does this apply to me? The application is that each of us has a role to play in the Body of Christ. You may use talents you have studied and practiced all your life, as did Bezalel. Or you may do something new, but you do it because it needs to be done and God will bless you for your willingness.
The point is, there are always things that must be done. God’s kingdom requires the effort and energy of all of us! Ask God to lead you, and GET INVOLVED.
God, show us how to serve You every day. May we bear fruit for Your kingdom. May we store up treasures in heaven. May we surrender to You all our energy, time, and talents. Use us, Lord. And make us humble enough to do whatever task you bring our way. Ask what You will of me, Lord.
AΩ.
[1] https://www.theaterhelper.com/2016/06/01/all-about-spatter/
Household Words: 