Expression: Chasing the Light
Have you ever watched a prism reflect light? What looks like a simple piece of glass shoots beams across the room in varying patterns, sizes, and depths. It's mesmerizing and beautiful, demanding attention and awe. What's interesting is the different expressions of light all come from a single source. Similarly, moms are a bit like prisms. As Christians, we're filled with the love of God—the light of Christ—but we display it to the world in our own unique ways. We may paint, sing, bake, order, craft, decorate, or write, but we reflect the same light. These creative expressions are our light beams. Just as prisms catch the eye, our expression of God's love catches the attention of our children.
This draw towards the light is God-designed. God expresses who he is in a way that makes the invisible visible. He uses beautiful things we can see, touch, smell, taste, and hear to show us his love. We moms can do this too, finding ways to enjoy and imitate God's creativity with our kids. In these reflections, he invites us into his love and offers us joy in the everyday. Let's chase the light.
Expression in Love
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). The first words recorded in Scripture point to the artistic expression of God. Out of the joyous love of the Trinity spilled galaxies and color hues and rushing waters filled with coral reefs and brilliant sunrises and purple carrots and a plant that would one day become coffee. The things God made were all light beams to point back to his own infinite, immeasurable, incomprehensible nature. But his most stunning expression, most reflective creation, was mankind. In the face of one made of flesh and bone, he gave the ability to reflect his image, his light, into his world.[1]
But we know what happened next. Sin darkened and muddled the light beams, distorting God's reflection and our understanding. But people were not without hope; there was a promise of a conqueror, the Light of the World.[2] When Jesus died on the cross, it was the darkest day the world has ever known. But through his death and resurrection, the world could see and know the fullness of God's love. We see the expression of his love reflected in the light of Easter morning.
Expression in the Ordinary
Sometimes, though, life feels less like Easter morning and more like the chaotic rush on the way to church. Children bicker, shoes disappear, and the coffee is cold. We run right past the light beams around us, bogged down by the darkness of the broken world. But God's love continues to shine, waiting for our attention and awe.[3]
So how do we find these light beams when the needs are many and summer days seem extra long?
One way is to practice being creative with our kids. How can we point to God's beauty? His kindness? Where do we see his imagination? What reveals his glory? God is creative, and being made in his image means we're all creatives too. It's in our nature to copy God by making the invisible visible. While a mom may arrange flowers for the table as a picture of beauty and growth, a child may sketch their family as a picture of community and love. Both are light beams that reflect God's goodness to us in our ordinary lives. We're surrounded by beauty, and we grow in love within families and communities. These are everyday gifts of God for the people of God, and we have the ability to make them known.
Secondly, we can form rhythms around light. Summer often brings a change-up in routines and activities, so consider how to make space for your family to enjoy God's creativity. You can visit the library and check out art books to study the great painters. You can plan for slow mornings with music and cups of tea. You can take nature walks, collecting the beauties you find to copy into a nature journal. Just as you are a type of prism with your own way of reflecting God's light, your children are their own type of prisms. Find ways to support and encourage their creative expressions through your daily rhythms.
Lastly, we can model how to chase light for our kids. Sometimes we're overwhelmed with the obvious ways God loves us, but other times, it's hard for us to see his love. If we've practiced chasing the light beams, it becomes easier to spot them even as darker days come. Share with your children how you see God's love expressed in the mundane. Talk about it as you bite into a gooey cookie or drive past a glorious sunset. Foster their abilities to express thoughts and feelings as they respond to God’s world around them. Encourage them in their creative strengths, showing how the gifts God gave them can be light beams for others. Give them art materials, help them learn a new song to sing, or drive them to a friend's to deliver a homemade gift. Each lesson in chasing the light strengthens their sight in a broken world.
Expression as Worship
There's always the struggle for a mom to turn something God intended to be a gift—like creativity—into a burden or idol. It can feel like another thing we have to do this summer or like a checkmark on our own Good Mom Standard. We're also swimming upstream in a world that fails to see the light beams in ordinary places. Pictures hanging on the fridge? Music squeaked out on a tiny violin? The world might say, "Cute, but not meaningful." Any one of these ditches can derail a summer of light chasing. What's a mom to do when she starts to veer to one side or the other? Keep God's creativity as the framework.
God's expression is one of love: it overflows from love and points to love.[4] A burden, an idol, and a lie are things divorced from love—even if they look pretty. When thinking of ways to chase the light with our kids this summer, we can't separate our creative expressions from God’s love. What we do and what we point to must be love. When we chase the Light of Christ, we have a clearer image of the One we love and reflect.[5] Creative expression is, ultimately, about worship. It grabs our attention and leaves us in awe. By showing our children how to trace God’s love in the everyday light beams, we're teaching them to pay attention and to worship.
Every person in our homes is a prism made to point back to God. He wants us to see and enjoy the expressions of his love. Let's make this a summer of chasing his light together.
[1] Gen. 1:26
[2] John 8:12
[3] Ps. 19:1-2
[4] 1 John 4:8-9
[5] 1 Cor. 13:12-13
Reflection Questions
God’s love reflects in the world through what he’s made, whether in the majestic or the simple. Through what simple things in your life do you already see these light beams? In what ways do you already reflect light beams to your family?
Consider the unique creative gifts in your family, thinking through each person as their own type of prism. How can you encourage and help them express God’s love to the world around them?
Chasing light beams can feel like another to-do this summer or a way to prove your worth in motherhood. How does the gospel reorient a mom’s heart and free you to enjoy creative expression with your kids?
Application Ideas
Make an art cart or art space in your home. The basics are simple: construction paper, crayons, scissors, and glue. Of course, you can add more depending on the ages and interests of your kids!
Visit the art section of your local library. Let your children choose a favorite book and bring it home, so you can pore over the images and try to re-create what you’ve seen. (The art cart will come in handy.)
Check to see if your local high schools or colleges are performing any plays or musicals. Often, these shows are offered as matinee performances (no late nights!) and, sometimes, for free.
Want to explore the riches of classical music? Start with the Bach Cello Suites for your slow morning rhythm.
Make a list of neighbors to bless with light beams this summer. Drop off cards, crafts, or whatever your child creates!
Keep a nature journal. As you explore the woods, the coast, the park, or your own backyard, collect the beautiful things in creation and re-create them with colored pencils or paints in your nature journals. This is one way to train the habit of attention so that you can continue to see God’s beauty in ordinary places.
