My wife has been reading The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer, and in the book she encourages creativity in the home. Whether, drama, art, music, or writing, she explains the importance of putting our God-imaging creative powers to work for His Glory.
Schaeffer encourages sketching on To-Do Lists, embellishing papers with filigree, having a family music nights, performing dramas for one another, and writing poetry.
So here is a poem based on Matthew 13:53-58. Hopefully it will inspire you to perform your common weekly tasks with creativity and imagination.
The Common Christ
by Chad Ashby
Oh, the beauty of the Incarnation:
God the Son made flesh and plain.
Cried we, “Common Man, how can you save us?”
Yet for the common sinner was he slain.
“We ask you how, O Carpenter’s Son,
Shall vic’try come by hands that hammer swung?
By a Simple Man who puts nails to wood
Can the Kingdom of Heaven truly come?
We have your mother in our midst,
And your brothers living here beside.
Simple Jesus, you’re our native Son,
Your sisters our men have made their wives.
Whence comes your wisdom and mighty acts,
For your stature grew in our town?
Shall we now your disciples become
And upon your head bestow a crown?
No, no, Young Man, our allegiances lie
With a Messiah whose sword and heavy boot
In vengeance and wrath our enemies crush
Defeating them with the tread of his foot.”
Quietly departing his hometown,
“Crushed in due time my enemies shall be
And a crown shall I wear before all men,
Only, after Man’s Son is crushed for thee.
My enemies I came to live among–
Every father, mother, daughter, and son.
My low estate is to be your blessing,
That as one brought death, now life through One.”
Matthew 13:53-58–
53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, 54 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” 58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.
