A Significant Touch

(How one half-timer connected with her passion and touched the world)

The first time Rosalind Cook sank her hands into a mound of clay at the age of 26, her soul said, "Ah ha!"

"Shaping that clay into a meaningful form was like finding a piece of myself that had been missing for a long, long time," explains Cook. But life was busy, and for years sculpting terra cotta clay was simply a hobby for Cook, a teacher of the blind before becoming a stay-at-home mother of three, who served on a plethora of school boards and fund-raising committees.

"I realized I was trying to be who other people thought I should be, and I wasn't looking at how God created me. I pulled away from community work and reflected on what really gave me joy in life - and that was sculpting. But I still felt a bit guilty about loving it so much, until a missionary friend watched as I pulled out my clay one evening. I cried as I said to him: 'I don't understand how I can have so much joy in doing this! Where's the significance? This isn't saving souls. This isn't doing anything for anyone. It just feeds me and brings me joy.' "

And that wise man of God replied, "Rosalind, you are made in God's image. He's your Creator and when you use the gifts of His image that gives Him pleasure.'

"From that day on I gave myself permission to sculpt," says Cook. "And I finally connected with its true significance in my life. I was 41. I cast my first bronze at 42 and was able to sell it almost immediately."

Today, Cook's prized bronze sculptures, which range from happy, playful children to full-sized images of Jesus, grace galleries throughout the world. She has donated many pieces to charities, raising far more money than any committee work she ever did.

"My art is a celebration of life and its Creator," says Cook. "It gives me the opportunity to motivate people to give themselves permission to dream. When I gave myself permission to take joy in clay, God sculpted a new world for me in the second half of life. If you delight in your God-given passion, He will give you the desires of your heart - because He put them there! Don't ignore what God is tugging at your heart to do; that's like saying what He has created for you isn't important. Pursue what gives you joy, and you will be amazed by the significance of what God will do through you.

To learn more about the artist and her art, visit http://www.rosalindcook.com


Put Your Hands in the Hands

When word of Rosalind Cook's talent spread, requests for commissioned work became overwhelming.

"I asked the Lord for the strength to say no to some requests because I wanted everything I did to have real significance - value other than a pretty piece of bronze to sell in a gallery."

Soon afterward Cook did a small head study of a woman with a turban draped over one shoulder. The sculpture stopped at the clavicle.

"I wanted to create a woman who depicted beauty not because of her hair, not because of her body, but because she had this inner strength and dignity," explains Cook.

Weeks later a friend saw the small piece in Cook's studio and asked the artist if she would donate it as a fund-raiser for Tulsa Project Woman, a organization that helps women who have no health insurance pay for breast cancer treatments.

"I finished the piece and took it to my foundry to have my mold done and asked for Suzy, who always does them for me. But Suzy wasn't there" recalls Cook. "I learned she had breast cancer and was taking chemo treatments. In tears I told her co-workers what the sculpture was for and was astounded to learn that Project Tulsa Woman had paid for Suzy's treatments."

Later Cook asked Suzy to speak at the event in which the small bronze sculpture would be unveiled. Although shy, Suzy bravely told a crowded room how Tulsa Project Woman took her death sentence and gave her the gift of hope.

"Everyone there was in tears as Suzy, who had lost her hair and her breast, stood beside that sculpture of a woman who depicted beauty - not because of her hair, not because of her body - but because she had inner strength and dignity," recalls Cook. "Suzy was the living embodiment of that sculpture, and the money to help more women poured in. God honored my prayer for significance by taking the least significant thing I had done and making it the most significant. HIS hands guided mine to shape that small study because He knew exactly what its purpose was."

[By Ivey Harrington Beckman}]