Growing in Community Together

“That’s a great nipple,” K. said, pointing to my sketch.

“Thanks,” I smiled, “I studied them in college.”

[Awkward chuckle]

We were evaluating each other’s artwork for that evening, along with our other classmates, like we do near the end of every gathering.

My Monday night drawing class serves as a pseudo small group for me. I started taking drawing classes as a means of therapy. While our main focus is learning to be better artists, there is a camaraderie and care that has begun to develop.

Tonight, we’d worked on sketching a still life in charcoal. One of our models was the headless bust of a female mannequin gently draped in cloth, surrounded by a small cadre of unconnected objects.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:10-11 (ESV)

In a world that celebrates our independence and self-reliance, the Christian call to community and service often stands out as a beacon of hope and love. Beauty is often found in the mundane.

The growing camaraderie and care developing in my Monday night drawing class beautifully illustrate the concept of using one’s gifts in service to one another, as 1 Peter 4:10-11 encourages us to do as an expression of our Christlike love.

Art, in its many forms, is a gift. It is a divine whisper allowing us to see, to create, and to interpret the world and our experiences through a lens touched by grace found through faith.

The gentle, headless bust of a female mannequin, draped in cloth, serving as the subject of our class’s sketches, is a reminder of how beauty, art, and community can intersect in the most unexpected places.

While we are primarily focused on growing as artists, our small group of creatives models the essence of using God’s gifts to serve one another. Together, we grow both in skill and spirit.

We see the divine at work, using our collective gifts of creativity to build up, encourage, and perhaps even heal.

God’s glory shines through these acts of service, small though they may seem, for they are acts of love.

Remember: Tell somebody about Jesus today!

Steadfastly,

Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™