Struggling to Break Free—Travels in Italy part 2

I am a fair-weather gardener and writer. When the days are short and the weather is cold and dreary, I’m happy to be at my computer typing away and not outside clearing away weeds and dead flowers. But when Spring hits and we start having the mild temperatures and sunny days of the past few weeks, my writing goes by the wayside. I want to be outside, playing in my garden.

My friend Bill came over at the end of April with his small tractor and tilled me up a little vegetable plot. This is the first time in many years that Keith and I have had an actual garden. Farmer Jack from across the road gave me careful instructions on how to plant my tomatoes and I put the compost I have been growing all winter in each hole. The tomatoes, squash, peppers, cucumbers, and beans are thriving!

But I’m still thinking about Italy and my mind is sifting through the memories of our trip in April.

The art is paramount to a trip to Italy of course, and we saw many beautiful paintings at the Vatican Museum in Rome and at both the Uffizi and Accademia Galleries in Florence. Any one of the hundreds (thousands?) of pieces in these museums qualifies as a masterpiece.

Despite the plethora of stunning paintings, the sculptures are what grab my attention, especially those by the grandmaster, Michelangelo. His ability to convey such emotion in the cool smooth lines of the marble is beyond description.

Perhaps his most famous sculpture is the Davide, the 17-foot-tall rendering of the young shepherd boy poised in all his glory with stone in hand before he slings it into the face of the giant. He stands at the end of the Accademia Gallery in Florence, towering above the tourists who come from all over the world to gape under his far-off gaze.

Lining the long corridor leading up to David are what to me are the most fascinating of Michelangelo’s sculptures. These are his unfinished works known as the prisoners or slaves. The figures, seen mostly as torsos, seem to be trying to heave themselves out of the rock, as if they are imprisoned there. Art historians have studied them for centuries and they shed light on Michelangelo’s technique for sculpting.

I first saw these statues over forty years ago when I was studying in Venice during my college years and have remembered them ever since. Maybe they left such an impression on me because at that time in my life I was struggling to push myself through a heavy blanket of depression.

This quote from the Accademia’s website shows the immensity of the great artist’s talent:

“Michelangelo believed the sculptor was a tool of God, not creating but simply revealing the powerful figures already contained in the marble. Michelangelo’s task was only to chip away the excess, to reveal.”

Can you imagine looking at a block of marble and thinking, I just need to get rid of this excess rock to find the figure inside? It blows my mind.

And yet, isn’t this what all creativity comes down to? We may not have Michelangelo’s talent for pulling people out of marble, but any time we make something we begin with the bare ingredients — paint and canvas, flour and eggs, needle and thread, pen and paper —and something new emerges.

Mark Twain famously said, “Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”

On a deeper level, these slaves who are locked for all eternity in the marble remind me that God is the artist who creates each of us. He is seen as the potter who molds us:

“Yet you, Lord, are our Father.

We are the clay, you are the potter;

we are all the work of your hand.”

Isaiah 64:8

And from Paul:

 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10

I love thinking of myself as God’s unfinished masterpiece, made for His purposes. Just like Michelangelo chipped away at what was not needed to reveal the masterpiece within, God continues to show me what I don’t need in my life. Anger, jealousy, unforgiveness, pride and bad habits hold me back from being the true person God sees in me.

The process of removing these barriers can be painful. But at times I feel God’s loving hand molding me, giving me a finishing polish to smooth out my rough edges.

What is holding you back today from being the masterpiece God created you to be? Ask Him to show you what needs to go so that you do not end up entombed like the unfinished slaves in Florence.