Let’s Speak the Language of God

Legend has it that a reporter asked Michelangelo, “How did you create this amazing sculpture from a block of marble?” His reply has fascinated everyone for hundreds of years.

“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block before I start my work. It is already there. I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” ~Michalangelo

I always wonder how the great artist knew the sculpture was in the marble block. I have discovered that art is the language of God. Michelangelo spoke the language of God.

My favorite sculpture of Michelangelo is The Pieta (Picture), Mary carrying Jesus’ body on her lap after the crucifixion. I can gaze at the picture of it for a long time and feel taken away in amazement, as if I see God’s fingerprints on it.

Sometimes people ask me to prove God’s existence. Art is evidence of God’s presence. All these great artists, Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci, Beethoven, Mozart, William Wordsworth, Robert Frost, and you name it, not to mention King David and Solomon, showed us God’s existence through art. They speak God’s language and give me a thirst to speak the language of God.

In fact, the entire Bible is a piece of art written by those who understood the language of God. That’s why it’s filled with poetry, psalms, parables, prophecies, proverbs, profiles, and philosophy. Art needs interpretation, and that’s why some parts of the Bible are hard to understand until we are fluent in the language of God.

One day I discovered a story in a book written 2,400 years ago by the Taoist sage Zhuangzi which reveals a secret to speaking the language of God.

The Woodcarver Qing received an assignment from the king to carve a bell stand for the courtyard (Picture). He did a marvelous job, and people everywhere came to admire the bell stand at the palace.

They said, “This bell stand is so stunningly beautiful. It looks like the work of God.” They visited the woodcarver’s home to interview him about his secret to reaching the pinnacle of artistry. Qing said, “I am a mere woodcarver, far from an artist. If you want to know how I carved it, here is what I did.

“Since this project was for the king, I realized I must concentrate my energy to get the job done well. So, I fasted for seven days. After three days of fasting, I stopped caring about my compensation; after five days, I could ignore my reputation; and after seven days, I had even forgotten my reservation—my ego had disappeared.

“By that time, I had lost all my distractions and became one with the Holy Spirit. Then I went up to the forest hill to look for the tree for the bell stand. I look for the one with the bell stand in it. When I found it, I cut it down and carved it out. The outcome was what you call the work of God.” (End of story.)

The woodcarver stayed humble and didn’t even think of himself as an artist because, like Michelangelo, he felt his art already existed in the tree. He just revealed it by chipping away the excess. His secret of seeing the sculpture in the raw material is setting aside his ego. He did it through fasting. Michelangelo did not disclose how he achieved that state, but this story gives us a clue,

Jesus fasted for forty days to set his ego aside even though he was the Son of God. In today’s scripture lesson, Jesus gives us more clues to speak the language of God. Let’s find out!