Book Club: The Hidden Art of Homemaking Chapter 1

Cindy is hosting a Book Club discussing The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer.  Please join us!

I read and reviewed The Hidden Art of Homemaking early in 2002.  My the-best-mother-in-law-ever lent me her copy (and her copy of What is a Family? Both books I’ve since purchased for my own library.)  I devoured it. I’ve started to re-read it a couple of times, but haven’t completed it. 

I absolutely adore Schaeffer’s insistence that human creativity and art are grounded in God’s character and being as creator and artist. 

Art is a means of communication, of declaration. What a great verb that is: declare. The Lord declares his very being, existence, power, majesty, and character through creation. We, too, as creatures declare in our art.  We either declare God’s glory or our own. 

Limits are not placed on God’s creativity.  He has created a vast universe with great variety.  When we, as creatures create, we are limited to God’s universe and variety.  We must submit to the laws, elements, and time of God’s creation. 

Last night, my children had a piano recital.  They played pieces of music that were composed by someone else. Each composer, though, had to submit to the conventions of music. Each song had the child’s own touch – whether rhythm or added endings or the way their fingers moved over the keys.  

We gave flowers to the girls.  Tulips to one and white flowers to another, planning to combine them into one vase at home.  We had to submit to the colors and types of flowers that were available, the act of combining and making two kinds beautiful together is a reminder of the work of the creator.

We had limits on our time and place last night, too.  M-girl had soccer practice scheduled.  N-boy had his first coach-pitch baseball practice scheduled.  We had to choose one.  Is arranging the schedule for a family a hidden art? Perhaps.  Especially if you think about Schaeffer’s definition of a family as a mobile …