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Shape and symmetry attract my interest. The shapes of various trees or constellations or dogs, for instance, catch my eye and consideration. The composition of a well-organized photograph or painting or paragraph invites my study. For me, the discovery of well-plotted symmetry arouses a sort of awe.

When I recognize shape and symmetry in the construction of Bible ideas or writings, I feel connected to God. My intellect likes to pursue the tracing of the shape and the contribution that shape makes to the composition. My artist wants to draw or write in that shape to see what it feels like. My emotions seem to touch God’s character.

I don’t claim to know whether the shape and symmetry I find in various places in the Bible came straight from God’s lips or actions onto the printed page or whether they appeared because the spokesperson God chose used God-given skill in writing. I deal with the text as it is and with the awesome God who comes through to me.

One example of what I mean by shape and symmetry appears in the creation account. On the first three days God made day and night, sky and ocean, land and plants. Then God came back to fill the aquarium: sun, moon, and stars for the day and night; birds and fish to go in the sky and ocean; and animals and humans to inhabit the land and plants. It’s a symmetrical, artistic way to create a world, I think.

The Bible says God rested then. The artist or inventor may work long and hard, putting the mind to great test, searching for the elusive key or clue to make the product right. Then it comes, as if out of the blue, during sleep or some other moment of rest. Rest brings the "Aha!" So God, the artist, rested and invited the humans to rest, too.

For me, that rest is imperative, rest in God for my salvation, rest in sleep or out in nature, and rest on a day set aside for connection with God. After rest, I return with renewed creativity to my own creation art.