When we stumble on a painting, who’s painter we do not know, do we attribute the work to the paints? To the canvas? No. The painter may be unknown and unknowable but for the work, but we do not doubt the work was created. In fact, the modern painters usually sign their work, and so sometimes can know a name, even if we do not know much else.
As a child, I knew this painter. So I can tell you that he was not often found without a cigar and some item of curiosity. Always a favorite visitor, he inspired us to wonder. His goal was a set of paintings that he was unable to complete before his untimely death due to heart attack. In death came his most lasting lesson: to know your purpose, and to live it urgently.
Onondaga cave in Missouri is as intricate as a Chinese ivory carving but over a space of miles. In the children around me, there was no question this is an awesome work of art. Yet, the film in the front attributes it as “nature’s art work”. It falls flat, as if the film is confused, attributing the work of art to the paints the creator used to create it. In our hearts, we feel the creator in the glory of His handiwork. As people created in his image, we can cannot help but be inspired by the work of art that is the world in which we live. As stewards of this art work, we are tasked to care for this creation, much as an owner of a painting must care for it.
The creator of our universe signed his work. He signed it in our hearts. So that we do not each have to begin from scratch, and because hearts in isolation are easily mislead, the revelations of thousands of years are recorded in scripture. As image bearers, we are each a part of this work of art, each have a purpose in its unfolding, and in its protection.
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