"Missions then is less about the transportation of God from one place to
another and more about the identification of a God how is already there. It
is almost as if being a good missionary means having really good
eyesisight. Or maybe it means teaching people to use thier eyes to see
things that have always been there; they just didn't realize it. You see
God where others don't. And then you point him out.

"Perhaps we should replaced the word missionary with tour
guide, because we cannot show people something we haven't seen."

-- Rob Bell, "Velvet Elvis," p 88

I love this idea-- it so beaitufilly articulates not only the sort of mission we are to be on as people, but even more so about what art sets out to do. As artists, we point out what we see for others to experience. When I was working on my Senior portfolio in High School, I read an artical in The International Artist about landscape painting-- the painting, the article instructed, should set out to say something about the place rather than simply illustrating the sight. What is it that the Artists sees in the place that they seek to communicate about it? What is the ultimate goal or intent?

This passage, and some of the author's repvious ideas, relate so closely to many of the thoughts I've been sorting through about art having the same role as literature in its communication of themes about the world-- just like sermons or stories we tell about our lives, art is a beautiful and deeply challenging way of telling others about truthts we discover. In this way, artists are missionaries too-- maybe more so as it gets to the root of the human experience so freely.

In this way, I can't help but think that my choosing, my gifting, my calling towards teaching and artmaking is incredibly spiritual (just as everything we do is and must be). I have been given this unique gift and this daunting challenged to do this thing that few people are brave enough to do-- to search deep and seriously the ways of explaining the deeperst parts of reality as they are experienced.

As I was reading these thoughts about pointing out that which is present but unseen, I could not hlep but think of the way we as artists develop our sight to see all sorts of colors, to see and appreciate shapes and relationships. One of my favorite professors often says, "The more you look, the more you see," and maybe this is true of a lot more than painting or even artmaking-- As we are people seeking the ultimate reality Jesus came to point out, we become people who are ever so deeply invested in looking more intesely at this life that Abba has created so that we can help others see it too.

"Tour guides are people who see depth and texture and connection where others
don't. That is why the best teachers are masters of the obvious.
They see the same things that we do, but they are aware of so much more.
And when they point it out, it changes they way we see everyting."