I believe I share the soul of an artist.  No - unfortunately I am not gifted with being an artist in any conventional sense.  And I am certain that being an artist is not my ultimate calling.

Yet, I can connect with the simple: the mundane and ordinary happenings of everyday life!

Picture a beautiful butterfly, flexing its wings on the surface of a new daisy, suddenly scarfed up and eaten by a greedy grackle.  Ha!  Whether you are on the side of the grackle or the side of the butterfly, it is not our design to judge.  It is God's design.  It is not up to us to question the fairness of it.  That is the way the world works.

God created this magnificent world, and He created us to behold His mighty works.  Astonishing!  While God blesses some with certain talents, such as the talents of an artist, I believe the truth of the matter is that he also blesses some of us just to behold and communicate His works.

I'm that guy! 

We shall tell of His Almighty works, and that is our gift, our talent, our artistic role.

I have always been so fascinated with the way life revolves around water, and the life within that water.  To the microscopic point, the water teems with life.  God's hand is upon everything, and His workings are through everything.  It just blows me away!  From amoebas to protozoan, to bacteria and algae of all kinds, the water is thick with life.  And yes, you can drink of the water.

I have sipped the snowy runoffs of northern Utah, and drank from the wellsprings of West Texas.  I have tasted the metallic waters from my aunt's well in Gonzales County, and I had a blast sipping the seeping runoff from the limestone cliffs around Austin, Texas.  I am not advocating that anyone should drink from a nasty, stagnant pond.  But I am saying that it is perfectly alright to sip flowing waters of any kind.  You will not die from liver flukes.  I'm still around!

Some of my most memorable moments were when I was working out in the Mojave Desert.  We were working mostly at night, and driving across those flat plains in the moonlight.  It just brought the world right into view.  Ever since I was a kid, I have wanted to trek the desert on my own, and turn over that stone, and find that scorpion, and just be amazed!

But, the Mojave at night is no place to be alone, or at least out of radio contact!  Critters come out at night, the whole desert comes to life, and a good many of those critters have venom and bites which are not conducive to being alone, 80 miles from the nearest hospital.  Yet, it is abundantly clear, even in a situation like that, even to the most stupid of us humans, that this is God's work all around us.  Again, I can only express my amazement.  To this day, I still want to make that desert trek by myself.

I don't know quite how to put this - and I hope it will come across as at least readable - but when you are alone with God in the awesome stillness of His creation, there is some type of stirring that occurs within one's soul, some type of beckoning.  You lean toward his protection, you lean toward his omnipotence, and your fears are at once calmed.  At least that has been my experience.  No wonder I want to go back into the desert.

There are those who say that we evolved from primordial soup, mud. What, with a lightning strike, creatures began to come up out of the soil.  What garbage!

Who can look at an Indian Paintbrush, a Bluebonnet flower, who can hear the faint whisper of an infant sleeping, and what man can look upon a woman's delicate skin, touch her, and not consider this the most precious thing in his life?  No, I did not evolve from primordial soup, friends.  I was created by the Most High.  The royal blood of heaven runs through these veins!

I may never be an artist in the way that we traditionally view artists, but I will always be THAT guy!  The continually astonished and fascinated guy - the one who eagerly absorbs all that which God has put before him.

I know that I will never cease to be fascinated.  Heck, I am even fascinated with the technology that has allowed me to write this article.  But it's not the same fascination that I have for the natural works.  Let my fascination with God’s works be permanent, and let that fascination be enough for my life!

Let me continue to be “that guy”.
Mike's Musings...
Sharing the Soul of An Artist
Austin, Texas cliffs and water
Indian Paintbrush and bluebonnet flowers
Mojave Desert