Ish

Ramon loved to draw. Anytime. Anything. Anywhere. 

Until one day Ramon's brother, Leon, looked at his art and asked, "What's that supposed to be?" Ramon answered, "It's a house." To which Leon declared, “That’s not a house. It doesn’t look anything like a house.” Ramon looked around at all his beautiful artwork. To him all of it had lost all meaning. He was angry, so he crumpled up all his drawings and threw them in the garbage. When all his artwork was gone, Ramon’s world looked very dull and he became very sad.

Seeing Ramon so sad concerned his little sister, Marisol. She did not like to see her big brother this way. She knew he loved to draw, so she asked him to draw her a picture. Ramon gruffly replied, “I can’t draw!” Marisol took his hand and said, “come here.” She led him to her room. All around her bedroom Marisol had smoothed out all the crumpled pictures Ramon had thrown away and hung them on her walls. Ramon asked, “Why did you do this?” Marisol said because I like your art. Ramon said, “That’s not art. It isn’t anything.” “Sure it is,” said Marisol.

Ramon walked over to one picture and pointed to it and asked, “What is this, then?” And Marisol replied that it was a house. He pointed to another, “and what is this?” She said, “A Flower.” Ramon said, “That’s not a house; that’s not a flower. They don’t look anything like they’re supposed to.” Marisol replied, “Well, that’s a house-ish. And that’s a flower-ish.” She explained to Ramon that all his art was ish. It was not beautiful because it looked like a house or a flower. It was beautiful because it was Ramon’s.

So Ramon began to draw, once again, ish. He was much happier knowing that his art was still beautiful and that the beauty of it came from what he put into it.

This beloved children’s book by Peter H. Reynolds is a lovely way to look at our ministry at First Christian Church. We may not have what the church next door, or down the street, or across town has to offer, but what we have is quite beautiful because it is Ish. The Ish is what each of us puts into it, and the more we each put in, the more beautiful our Ish becomes. Perhaps not everything runs perfectly smooth and occasionally things don’t come together just as they are planned, but I think that might be where God steps in and blesses our Ish.

Our families are like that, too. Perhaps we don’t look like or live like others live. Perhaps our children aren’t perfect and our spouses aren’t brilliant. Perhaps our efforts seem clumsy and we frequently make mistakes, but it is beautiful still because it is Family-ish. Maybe we have miss-matched socks and odds and ends thrown together in complete chaos on an almost daily basis, but woven throughout is love. That is our Ish.

All the things that make ministry, family, work, play…life beautiful is what we put into them…our Ish.

(Thank you to Rev. Kelley Dick of Beargrass Christian Church, Louisville, KY, for sharing this beautiful story with me and reminding me of my own Ish.)

Reynolds, Peter H. Ish. Candlewick; First Edition, (August 19, 2004).

Shalom,
Tracy