What Bert taught me

1. Nothing, and no one, is invisible to God.

2. Spit is an art tool. So is sand, and hands, and sticks. And his story reminds me: there is no creative poverty in God’s economy. 

3. Some art forms are nameless. But every artist has a name.

4. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21. God’s holy map leads to every single heart. Bert, and so many like him, knows this better than me. Before I see disability and strangeness, I need to start with their beating red heart. God, help me to remember Bert, and how he, without agenda, taught a famous artist the art of quiet awe and passing.

5. The canvas of earth is 4.5 billion years old. The Bible tells us our lives are but evaporating mist upon it. We are here and in long generations from now no one will know we lived except by the traces of how we loved.

And my faith tells me: we are evaporating elsewhere.