Joshua Allen Harris

His Workmanship

 

He makes art out of trash bags and shopping bags.

 

His name is Joshua Allen Harris.  He is a “street artist” and his art has been viewed at various places in New York City.

 

What appears to be trash lying on a subway grate springs to life as a subway passes below.  The air produced by the passing train causes the “garbage” to inflate to become a 15-foot-high Minotaur, or a polar bear, or the Loch Ness Monster.  Here’s a video of some of Harris’ art:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6xCT2aTSo

 

“I guess it's inflatable street art,” Mr. Harris told New York Magazine.  “A sculpture that works on the street, that inflates with subway and exhaust air… Part of the magic of it is that it looks like trash on the street and then it comes to life.”

 

Harris' first work was a white polar bear.  “I figured with four paws it would give me enough wind to stand up and it worked,” he said.  “He looked really cool and had a lot of nice animation with his life and his death, in his inflation and deflation.”

 

Harris’ art illustrates what God can do with the lives of those who have been “trashed” by sin – and that includes ALL lives.  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

 

We are redeemed by the grace of God:

 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship [or His art], created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:8-10

 

And through the cleansing and atoning blood of His Son Jesus, who paid the price for our redemption from sin, God can make something beautiful and lasting (eternal) out of our lives.

 

“Something beautiful, something good

All my confusion He understood

All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife

But He made something beautiful of my life.”

-- Bill Gaither, “Something Beautiful”

 

God will redeem those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).

 

He can redeem YOU from sin and make something beautiful of YOUR life, if only YOU will respond to Him on His terms.

 

Won’t YOU?

 

-- David A. Sargent

 

* From “What a load of rubbish! Street artist turns trash bags into inflatable animal sculptures.” www.dailymail.co.uk.

 

David A. Sargent, Minister