I was reminded of these two quotes as I read the first two chapters of The Hidden Art of Homemaking, by Edith Schaeffer. I should say reread because I first read these chapters in 1971 when the book first came out (it was originally entitled Hidden Art). Each time I read these chapters I am re-impressed with all the care and artistry that God put into His creation and how I, made in His image, am to reflect Him to the watching world.

Mrs. Schaeffer’s word pictures present us with a God to whom beauty is important. He created a world for us full of colors and sounds and textures and tastes and smells in almost infinite variety. Why go to all that trouble? Perhaps He wanted us to see how big He is; perhaps He wanted to inspire us to be like Him; perhaps He did it for the sheer joy of thinking it all up; perhaps He simply wanted to delight us; or perhaps He knew man would look and wonder and be drawn back to the Creator of all this splendor. A friend of our family, Monte Swan, is always talking about God’s "extravagance" in nature which is seen clearly in the wild flower meadow below his house in the mountains where over 200 varieties of flowers live. Last summer we were at Monte and Karey’s Colorado home where we were also privileged to witness this extravagance as we looked out over a sea of blue flowers highlighted with yellow blossoms. Was it an accident that the flowers were displayed in this palette —given that blue and yellow are complimentary colors?

During the spring and summer months last year I made it a point to be more observant of the wildflowers that grow along our gravel road. I was amazed at the continual parade of flowers that came and went, yet always something in bloom. At one point it seemed that overnight hundreds of white daisies were waving to me as I drove along, only to be replaced with Queen Anne’s Lace and Chicory a few weeks later. Last year I observed. This year I think I will keep a written record of the flower pageant.

So what do my two quotes have to do with any of this? As Mrs. Schaeffer reminded me,

the fact that you are a Christian should show in some practical area of a growing creativity and sensitivity to beauty, rather than in a gradual drying up of creativity, and blindness to ugliness…. a Christian, above all people, should live artistically, aesthetically, and creatively. We are supposed to be representing the Creator who is there, and who we acknowledge to be there. It is true that all men are created in the image of God, but Christians are supposed to be conscious of that fact, and being conscious of it should recognize the importance of living artistically, aesthetically, and creatively, as creative creatures of the Creator. If we have been created in the image of an Artist, then we should look for expressions of artistry, and be sensitive to beauty, responsive to what has been created for our appreciation. (from chapter 2)

When I ponder the first quote above I consider the difference between glowing and glaring: the appeal of our candle chandelier flickering invitingly over our dining table as opposed to a naked light bulb dangling from a cord in the ceiling. Certainly God has called us to be an inviting glow that illumines Him to the world and not a glare that causes the world to squint or close their eyes to Him.

How might this happen? Let me draw some applications from chapter 6 ("Gardens and Gardening") and chapter 7 ("Flower Arrangements") of Mrs. Schaeffer’s book.

She writes, "A Christian individual or organization should not move into a property and turn it into a shambles. The opposite should be true. It should grow and blossom into a place of beauty, demonstrating something of the wonder of the One who made plant life to produce seeds in the first place." Now stop and think about your home and the area that surrounds it. Is it more beautiful than when you moved in? Is it glowing or glaring?

In the early 1980s our family lived in the inner city of St. Louis. Our front yard was tiny and sloped. I perched a flower garden on the top of the slope, following a pattern I found in Better Homes and Gardens. I planted a variety of flowers so that there was always something blooming, from Spring until the frosts of Fall. Since the flowers were only six feet from the sidewalk, its location made for easy conversation with whoever passed by as I worked at weeding or otherwise cared for my little plot. The "glow" of God’s beautiful creation caused people to stop and provided a stimulus for conversation. People respond to the attractiveness of the Creator’s handiwork.

Following are some ideas to help us start to "glow" or to widen our glow in the area of gardening, since Spring is just around the corner!

· Start at the point of entry to your home, your front door. Put up a wreath that says "Welcome" or a potted plant or two. With Spring coming a pot of pansies provides a very cheery welcome.

· Limited yard space? How about a window box or some hanging baskets from your porch or eaves?

· If you have already been working in your flower garden, find out what others have done and borrow ideas to make your garden more inviting? I enjoy looking at catalogs that already group flowers into coordinated arrangements for season-long color (like the Spring Hill catalog, l-800-582-8527) These stimulate my thinking and help educate me —I’m a novice in this area. Phil bought me Martha Stewart’s Gardening book last summer which I have read cover to cover, and I have big dreams!

· I gleaned a delightful idea from Gifts From the Heart. Plant a large plot of "picking flowers" and when a new neighbor moves in give them a vase and an invitation to return weekly to pick a new bouquet to fill the vase.

· Don’t let your "black thumb" remain a stumbling block, do something to turn it "green." Even a baby step is a step forward.

In regard to the second quote at the top of this article, I think of God as the candle and myself as the mirror. Here I have to step back and see if my mirror is bright and clean so it can reflect God, or if perhaps my mirror is streaked or fogged up so that little or no image can be seen, or if the image that is seen is distorted. Daily we need to ask God to clean us up so that we can reflect Him more faithfully. Some streaks that I see on my mirror are wrong attitudes, sharpness of tongue, laziness, etc. In the area of creativity we are all tempted to let inertia or a sense of inadequacy become a fog. We also might allow our mirrors to be clouded by the thought that creativity isn’t really important. But the Creator wants His creativity to be reflected in us.

Let me share two simple illustrations from this past year that demonstrate my own striving to learn creativity (or "hidden art") in flower arranging.

Last May I hosted a ladies brunch and as I went out into our woods to gather the flowers I had planned for the centerpiece I found to my great dismay that they were all gone. What to do now? I remember thinking, "What would Mrs. Schaeffer do?" So I turned around and started looking for what was available. As I looked the only green things were the May-apples or "umbrellas" as I call them. Whoever heard of a bouquet of "umbrellas"? Well... I picked them and put them in a transparent green vase in the center of the table and they made a very striking bouquet which drew several compliments from my guests.

In July Joanna’s eleventh birthday rolled around and I wanted to do a Monet’s garden party theme. As is often the case it was the eleventh hour when I was getting really inspired. I looked in my flower gardens and I had a limited number of flowers blooming, just enough for a centerpiece. I had wanted to decorate the candle chandelier but there weren’t enough flowers. Again what to do? I remembered seeing in a recent Romantic Homes magazine the idea of using branches of green leaves to decorate a chandelier so I went out and did the same. The branches of leaves, of which there was an abundance, gave the room a cool, woodsy, arbor affect and was much lovelier than my flower idea.

Both of these examples used green leaves instead of flowers to enhance my table. These lessons have expanded my creativity in the area of flower arranging by expanding my thinking in what materials do I have available and to not limit myself. By trying something new I expanded not only myself but also my family and guests’ appreciation of God’s creation.

Mrs. Schaeffer ends her book with the story of two young African men who told of being turned off to Christianity because of the lack of beauty they had seen in the missionaries’ homes. May that never be said of us. Let’s be sure that our demanding home-centered lifestyle does not cause us to neglect our role of bringing the beauty of God into our homes. May the Lord help us to make our homes glow as a reflection of the great Creator/Artist so that they may be a beacon in a dark world.