“Painting is by nature a luminous language.”–Robert Delaunay

Walking into my mom’s room at the nursing home, your eye would immediately be drawn to a painting on the wall. That painting is a drawing and painting of my family; my parents, sister, and I. I am holding a balloon and in the middle of the balloon are painted the words “The Ulrich Family.” A baseball bat is leaning up against my dad. Even though, my parents have divorced. This painting holds a special place in our hearts as the painting was done by my aunt.

Growing up, my aunt was an artist who spent her days using her creative talents by decorating Dairy Queen ice cream cakes. I have always loved this about my aunt. Like me, she is a creative soul and God uses our creative souls to make the Word made flesh in this world.

Besides my aunt, there is my friend JK and her husband CK. They started their own business The Pink Moose–Colorado. Their logo states “vintage creative” and that is exactly who they are. I seriously want JK to come and decorate my house. She posted the above quote on her Instagram account for their business and I immediately had the idea for this post.

This summer, I got to spend some time with JK and her girls as we went shopping. As I watched JK in the store, picking out items for her latest project, I could see she was in her happy place. I love watching and seeing what her and CK create after finding treasures at a local sale.

Painting is indeed a luminous language; a language that is spread out through the paint strokes on the canvas the artist chooses to use in their life. And God uses many other creative outlets to bring about luminous language that makes the Word made flesh in this world.

In my landing page post, I shared about the many I have been gifted to watch create through the ways God has gifted them with creative souls. There are my photography friends like KK who have this way of capturing events and people in the most beautiful ways. There is my friend JC who creatively helps people share their stories through video. It’s incredible to watch all those I know with their creative souls create something holy out of nothing or out of very little.

I think of all of us writers with the words God often places upon our hearts and minds. Through words, through paintbrushes, through camera lens and photo lens, God uses God’s creative people to bring about the Word made flesh in this world.

As a creative being and writer, one of my all-time favorite verses is John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There is something so incredibly holy about creating and using the gifts that God has given me…whether that is to write a book, a blog post, or write poetry. And God has blessed so many of my friends and family with this same gift.

For the creative souls in my life, thank you! Thank you for the ways you embody and make the Word made flesh through your photographs, through your videos, through your music, through your paintings and paintbrushes, through your words, through your poems and through so many other ways. 

Thanks be to God for those gifts in our lives.