God speaks like an artist

Above is a painting that I did at Sanctuary church last Sunday.  It’s based out of Zechariah 2….

 1 Then I looked up—and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand! 2 I asked, “Where are you going?”
      He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.”

 3 Then the angel who was speaking to me left, and another angel came to meet him 4 and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. 5 And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will be its glory within.’

 

10 ”Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the LORD. 11 ”Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. 

 

 

The tree in the new jerusalem is based out of a passage in Revelation 21.  Anyway…. I don’t want to give you every piece of scripture that I have in my brain when i do these paintings.  But what i do want to talk about is how colorful, detailed, and non pragmatic these visions are that zechariah and john have.  In fact, a lot of what comes from God to man is in the form of a poem, a song, or some kind parable.  In fact, earlier on in zechariah 1, he writes…

 

8 During the night I had a vision—and there before me was a man riding a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.

 9 I asked, “What are these, my lord?” 
      The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.”10 Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to go throughout the earth.”

 

 

What kind of vision is this?  If God wants to say something to us, why doesn’t he just fax or email something to us with bullet points about everything He wants us to remember and obey?  That seems way easier to decipher and figure out.  But He doesn’t.  He doesn’t speak like us at all. He doesn’t answer questions blatantly.  He doesn’t come in pragmatic visions.  He speaks in deeply layered way… and when He reveals himself in visions to people, they are wildly colorful, rich with detailed meaning. 

 

Over the last couple months, I’ve been painting at these large conferences… and one specific speaker, Francis Chan, was speaking about how Jesus taught…. and how unlike us it was.  He said that Jesus was hesitant of crowds.  When we gather crowds, we get the best speaker who tells the best stories and lays everything out in a very understandable way.  That’s how we do things… cause we want everyone to understand.  But Jesus has a crowd of  that has gathered to hear him speak.  and what does he say?

 

“What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.

 9“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”  john 6

 

 

Does this make any sense when you hear it?  No… it doesn’t.  In fact the disciples come up to him afterward and say… “um…. what does that mean?”

and here is Jesus’s reply…

11 He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables: 
   ”Though seeing, they do not see;  though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”

 

He says that i’m teaching in this way so that they’ll hear, but won’t understand.  Jesus knows who really wants to know about the kingdom, and who is just there to see a show.  He’s not pandering to the crowds.  He’s giving hidden insight to everyone… and those that can see that there is something there will seek him to know more.

 

That was from Francis’ talk.  I had this in my mind when I was talking to a girl who had watched me paint on sunday.  She came up and asked me about the painting… what it meant, what these symbols were.  She had an opinion about it, and she told me what she thought.  the thing is that some of the things she saw weren’t things i was intending to do.  she saw something else in the painting.

 

this happens all the time when i paint.  people come up to me and ask what the painting means.  but i ask them what they think it means, and they usual have a great, personal explanation.  that’s the great thing about a visual picture…. the meaning can be layered.  it can be lots of different meanings… even if the picture doesn’t change.  It struck me later that this is in some small the way the way God talks to us.  He doesn’t just lay our bullet points for what the kingdom of heaven is like… but he gives us a picture – “it’s like a seed that is planted and grows into a large tree and the birds of the air make their home in it’s branches.”

or the kingdom of heaven is like this priceless pearl someone finds… and sells everything he has to own it.

 

you see?  He doesn’t just give us verbal memos of explanation.  He gives us pictures that have deeply layered meanings that allow us to go deep into his mind and heart.  He doesn’t give us bullet points.  He speaks to us in a much richer language… the language of metaphor.

 

I think we, as artists, have a great opportunity to partake in this language. When we listen to the Spirit, and ask for images, we are asking to partake in the language of how God talks.  It doesn’t have quick explanations… and not everyone is going to get it.  But that’s not the point now, is it?  

 

I don’t want to be the kind of person who always puts God in their camp…. but i do think God speaks like an artist.

~ by scotterickson on December 10, 2008.