SHIP is Creating…Something Beautiful

One thing we love about the classes at our school in El Salvador, Colegio La Luz de Jesús, is that our students are always busy. They’re always moving or singing or making. They’re learning about the weather by singing songs about how hot or rainy or windy it is each day. They’re learning their colors and what it looks like when they take two (or three or ten) colors and mix them together.

Our students are bold in their creativity. They color inside the lines (sometimes), but give them a plain sheet of paper and be amazed at what they will do.

We love that they exercise their creativity and that they build their fine motor skills as they make beautiful pieces of art. But it excites us even more that, as they grow as creators, they grow in their knowledge of the One who created them. We see that their boldness to create new things comes from the Creator who made them and this whole world from nothing.

At our school, we use art in some form to teach any number of subjects because it gets the students excited about what they’re studying. When we’re teaching a Bible lesson, we might have a picture for them to color on while they listen to the story (like in the picture above). Their senses are engaged, and they become a part of the story.

And, sometimes, like in the picture above, the students really do become a part of the artwork. A couple of years ago we did an art project with the students. The project was based on 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”

For this project, the students made a “new creation,” a piece of art made with crayons and watercolors. Later, a picture of the student was added to his or her artwork to bring the message of the verse full circle. Students all over the world make artwork; this isn’t anything revolutionary. But, it is a blessing to be a part of these children creating something beautiful and learning that they are loved by the One who created them.