The marvellous thing is that this holiness is nothing we can earn. We don't become holy by acquiring merit badges and Brownie points It has nothing to so with virtue or job descriptions or morality. It is nothing we can do in this do-it-yourself workd. It is gift, sheer gift, waiting there to be recognised and received. We do not have to be qualified to be holy. We do not have to be qualified to be whole or healed.
Art can be a helpful escape, a place of solace from the world's burdens. It can be a vehicle to articulate our hurts and burdens. Panacea. Solace. Grace. We participate in someone else's rage as articulated in art in order to give voice to our own. I think about Sting's "The Mothers of the Disappeared." That serves well. Are can give voice in image, song or through the written word. There is a scriptural basis for L'Engle's thinking in this. Such people as Moses come to mind for her.
In a very real sense, not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God contuinually chooses the most unqualified to do his work, to bear his glory. If we are qualified, we tend to think that we have done the job ourselves. If we are forced to accept our evident lack of qualification, then there is no danger that we will confuse God's work with our own, or God's glory with our own.
This speaks of being "a slave to Christ." Humility. Service. Discipline. Talent.
How are these ideas related for us? How do they seem oxymoronic or contraditory?
