Art for God’s Refrigerator

A few years ago I was going through a bunch of stuff from my childhood at my parents’ house. I was cleaning things out & organizing the things I wanted to keep into bins. I came across this plastic tub with a lid on it & when I opened it up I found TONS of artwork & homework assignments from my childhood.  My mom isn’t the hoarder type, so she didn’t keep everything, but she kept the things she felt were significant or especially cute or important. She would hang things on the fridge for a little bit for my dad & her to fawn over, & then when it left the fridge, she made a choice about whether to toss it or put it in the “Keep Bin.” The tub was about 2 feet deep & it was FULL. The contents ranged from finger paintings I created as a preschooler to book reports I did in high school. She had 2 Keep Bins: one for me, one for my little sister Anna.

This is the kind of thing parents do because they’re proud of their children! It’s so heartwarming to see the progress in their art & abilities. There were some drawings my sister did as a little girl where EVERY SINGLE person she drew had circles for hands & giant eyelashes that looked like spiders on their faces. hahahaha The drawings weren’t saved for their technique or accuracy, but because my parents loved observing the things we noticed about the world & put down on paper as we grew!

I heard a quote from Tai Bender, a friend of mine in the bible journaling community, when I attended one of her workshops earlier this year.

“We’re all just making art for God’s refrigerator.”

It really stuck with me because it’s SO true. The Lord has got to be SO pleased with this community & all we are doing to show His Word to others! We’re his children & seeing all the artwork we’re creating to glorify Him as we grow as Christians must be so fulfilling for Him as our Father. :)

I wanted– no– I needed to get this idea down on paper. It’s been on a post-it note in my bible journaling ideas stash since February, and it’s one that I just keep pulling to the top of the pile. I was determined to create a page preserving this wonderful image of God standing in front of His refrigerator holding one of my bible journaling pages & popping it on with a random letter magnet. The door of His refrigerator is just STUFFED with art from this community because He’s so pleased seeing the scriptures we observe & learn from & put down on paper. I used Colossians 1:10 to illustrate this which is all about pleasing the Lord in everything that you do.

So next time someone in your life asks why you’re spending your time “doodling” in your Bible, just give them Tai’s simple reply, because I think it about sums it up:

“We’re all just making art for God’s refrigerator.”

<3 Elaine

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