Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn painted what most believe to be a self-portrait in 1629 titled, “The Artist In His Studio.”

The EASY METAPHOR here is that God is the artist and we are the canvas. In this painting we have sort of an outside view of God at work on his masterpiece.

But this metaphor has two MAJOR FLAWS:

The first is that we are the end product of God’s creativity. Which means that God’s purpose in this world is leading people into personal salvation (His masterpiece) and that’s it. We in turn lead others into salvation and join God in His artistic work.

The goal is salvation.

Which leads to the second flaw: God is not at work in creation or culture or this world we live in. In fact, He really isn’t interested in it at all. If we are the end product and the greatest masterpiece for God is our personal salvation, then it doesn’t really matter what happens to the rest of the world. Our careers, environment, government, education, etc. all take a back seat.

Almost as if we need something to occupy our time here while God is working on His masterpiece.

I think there’s a BETTER METAPHOR.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 4:55 am and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.