Born to Create as part of God’s Diverse Mosaic

By Brittany Riddle

When I was a young child, my parents signed me up for an art class. I went to the first day of the class, the teacher handed me a piece of popped popcorn, gave me a pencil and a large sheet of paper, and instructed me to draw the piece of popcorn. This was supposed to be a FUN exercise.

Being afraid of failure and being aware, even at that young age, that my artistic and spatial abilities were very limited, I panicked.  I started crying and didn’t stop until the teacher called my mom to come get me. It was suggested by the art teacher that it might be best if I didn’t come back. Kicked out of art class. Because of this experience and the shame and insecurity I felt around creating art, I avoided art classes and anything having to do with arts or crafts for the next 25 years.

A couple of years ago I had an idea for an experiential worship service for my congregation, focused on the theme of confession. As they came into worship, my church members received a small tile in one of the colors of our new church logo. After a time of prayer and confession, each person brought their tile forward, dropped it in a basket, symbolically releasing their confession to God. They left with the promise that their tiles would be transformed into something new, beautiful and whole in the following weeks.

I had a plan to take all of the tiles and create a four square-foot mosaic of our new church logo, but the idea in my head was suddenly much clearer than the reality of the hundreds of tiles randomly scattered on the table in front of me. After many hours of trial and error, all those tiles turned into the image of our church logo—and it still hangs outside the sanctuary today. It’s fun to occasionally overhear people wondering out loud which tile might have been theirs. And it’s a beautiful image of the scatteredness and brokenness of those of us who make up the church and the beauty we can embody when we come together and are made whole through Christ.

Through this process I discovered that I enjoy creating mosaics. The imagery of God taking the fragments of my life—the brokenness, the trauma, the disappointments—and transforming these fragments into something new, beautiful and whole that I can use in my ministry speaks to me on a deep level. When I make mosaics I am reminded that we are all part of God’s diverse mosaic—some of us are broken, chipped, have sharp edges, or just don’t quite fit in to the spaces that have been shaped for us. Put together, though, we are a beautiful bunch whose fragmented and broken lives can be joined together to be Christ’s presence to a hurting world.

In his Creative Spirituality, Robert Wuthnow writes about the intersection of creativity and spirituality as he shares insights from interviews of artists who are influenced by their spirituality. Reading this book and reflecting on my own journey into creativity, it struck me that though my faith and spirituality influence my art, the opposite is more true for me—my art influences my ministry.

Being creative gives me space for flexibility, opens me up to the movement of the Holy Spirit, provides unique opportunities to connect with people, enhances my ability to problem-solve, and provides a greater sense of mystery to my usually very-planned out life. Setting aside time to create provides the quiet, concentrated moments when I can meditate on God—a sort of Sabbath.

In an RSA Animate video, Sir Ken Robinson refers to a study in the book Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today, by George Land and Beth Jarman, that followed a measurement of creative capacity in hundreds of children throughout their childhood and into adulthood.  When tested as kindergarteners, 98% of the study’s subjects scored at the genius level in their capacity for creative thinking.  When they were ten, 32% of the same group scored as high, and by age fifteen, only 10%.

When 200,000 adults were given the same test, only 2% tested at the genius level for the capacity to think creatively.  These are staggering results, but I doubt most of us are surprised by them.

What does all of this mean for those of us who believe we are created in the image of a Creating God?  It means we are born to create.  It’s a part of who God creates us to be when we are young and uninhibited by the world’s expectations. As we grow up, we have to work at creativity and intentionally practice it throughout our lives in order to not grow out of it—and we have to get over ourselves enough to not worry about looking silly or incompetent.

Stepping into creativity challenges us to work on finding our voices. Finding our paintbrushes.  Finding our pens. It might be words on a page, the sculpting of clay, cooking irresistible food, creating a path of new mountain trails, or the hospitality of an open table.

Dancing.  Singing. Getting our hands messy. Moving our bodies. Creating. Creativity draws us into the present moment again and again, which is such a needed gift in the busyness and hectic pace of life.

Brittany Riddle is the Minister to Adults at Vinton Baptist Church in Vinton, Va.  She is passionate about creative spirituality and faith formation (and will begin a Doctor of Ministry degree in this area in January 2017).  As a minister and mosaic artist, Brittany is always on a personal journey to discover beauty in brokenness in the world around her.