A number of years ago, the Art Institute of Chicago presented an exhibit of work of Andy Warhol.  A leading avante-garde artist of the last century, Warhol is perhaps most famous for his unusual and creative depictions of Marilyn Monroe, Campbell soup cans, and other enduring symbols of American culture.  Warhol also gained recognition as an observer and critic of the culture whose symbols he portrayed, and attracted a substantial following of people (and hangers-on) who, uniformly, grieved over his untimely death in a New York hospital in 1987 at the age of 58.
     Outside Warhol's world, however, not everyone mourned.  Many never could understand the point that Warhol was making in his art, nor could many grasp the meaning of many of his often trenchant and sardonic observations about the human condition.  Many dismissed Warhol's work as silly and exploitative.
     However, the point remains:  whatever we may say about him or his work, we can nonetheless accept Warhol and his work for what, ultimately and seminally, they are:  reflections of the inexhaustible creativity of the infinite God in whose image we all are made.  An infinite God is, logically, infinitely creative, fully and absolutely capable of creating an infinite array of possibilities and actualities to populate the world he birthed.  Consider the uniqueness of every single human being.  No one is precisely the same, no one has precisely the same quantity of gifts or talents, no two people have the absolutely identical view of the world.  Each of us is a unique manifestation of an infinitely creative mind.
     Warhol's work demonstrates this aptly.  We may not like his art, we may not appreciate his aesthetic vision, we may not laud his lifestyle, but we cannot dismiss the fact of who he was:  a uniquely creative individual created by a uniquely creative God.
     As are we.  God's handiwork shines in every one of us and, together, we, gifted in nearly infinite ways, reflect the human fullness of the unerring reality of his sustaining creative presence.
     The value of art will always be debated, and this is good:  it is a necessary part of what it means to be human.  What is not debatable, however, is why we do art in the first place:  we are uniquely creative creatures made by an inexhaustibly creative God.