"Huellas de Adoración" Fingerprints of Worship

"Huellas de Adoración" or Fingerprints of Worship is the title of the Christian artist's conference in which I will be participating in Cuba.  It's an apt title.   Think of the information we have in our fingerprints.  It is truly amazing how the uniqueness of its patterns for each person are diverse enough to identify every individual on the planet: all 7.2 billion of us!  Yet in that diversity, we have a trace of the eternal: God's own fingerprint, as the Steven Curtis Chapman song goes, in all of us.  We are all made in His image.

Civilization was made possible by the use of our fingers.  The dexterity in our hands has enabled us to fashion technologies that led to tool-making, art, music, farming, transportation, writing and much more.  We affect each other with our hands.  The artist paints and draws attentively with his fingers.  The musician plays skillfully with his fingers.  With our fingers we trace the profiles of each other's faces in loving fashion.  We can also brutally destroy each other with our hands.  How does God want us to use our hands?  This is a primal question for the Christian artist.

I have been reading Michael Card's book, "Scribbling in the Sand."  The title refers to the passage describing Christ's dealing with those who brought the adulteress to him for judgement.  His response was a non response initially.  He simply scribbled with His finger on the sandy ground without saying a word.  Only when He was good and ready did He challenge everyone with the words, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."  But the text continues by saying that He simply returned to stoop down to the ground and scribbled more without saying much of anything else.  Slowly, all the accusers went away  convicted and dropped their stones.  Outside of a few words for stubborn hearts, scribbling with His fingers was all He needed to do.

There's great power in non-verbal communication.  Sometimes it's the most powerful way to communicate.  The arts have this potential power, especially music and the visual arts.  These forms communicate things in nonverbal ways that are powerfully effective.  God has given us power at our fingertips.