Of Words and Paintings

I was in one of those art galleries, the kind with tall ceilings, cavernous rooms, and masterpiece paintings on the walls. I was standing in front of one such painting taking in the rich detail, color, and emotion of the scene. The scene it portrayed was beautiful, and I wondered what it might be like to actually be there in this place and experience it first hand.

The artist was there. He experienced it and found the scene worthy of many hours spent on the canvas. He attempted to capture the beauty of what he saw for others to experience. He did a wonderful job, as far as it could go. But seeing the painting was not the same as experiencing the moment it portrayed. My imagination was captured by what it must be like to be there in that place. This created a longing to be there, and at the same time, a dissatisfaction that I could not.

Words are like this. We try to describe our experience to someone else and sure, they get it. But we both know that they really don’t. They only have our words. Like oil paints used to depict a real place, words are wholly inadequate to describe our experiences. Our testimony of words fail to convey our actual experience, and we sometimes end our descriptions with, “You had to be there.”

The scriptures are words that tell us about Jesus. They are testimonies about him, like great masterpiece paintings upon the walls. And our experience of Jesus is like one who wanders in the art gallery looking at scenes painted by words. 

And yet, we know that words are wholly inadequate to describe him, the one who created us, the cosmos and time itself. We are not meant to experience Jesus by words alone. These great paintings are not meant to become our experience of him. They are meant as our invitations to experience him. 

Standing before one of these scenes upon the wall, I turned to one beside me. “Please sir,” I said, “I want to meet the author of this painting.”

He smiled at me. “Of course,” he replied. “He’s been waiting for you to ask.”