Life Imitating Art

Is life imitating art? Or art imitating life?

Years ago, my wife taught me how to draw bamboo, in the classic Chinese water-ink style. When I saw this young bamboo branch swaying in the wind in Chai Wan Cemetery a month ago, it looked exactly the way I was trying to draw it with ink. But my feeble attempt to imitate life was nothing compared to the simply elegance of real life.

In many ways, our church is also like this little young bamboo branch. It is young and growing quickly; it looks weak but is actually composed of a strong core; it is flexible but there is also a clear direction where it is going to go; it has not achieved much yet, but it has the potential to grow into something much bigger. To achieve that, it has to maintain an outward-looking perspective. Chances are it will.