My Life in Paint and Blood
It is my belief that we understand God as existing in a dimension all His own. This dimension is one outside of time—that God neither experiences time nor grows or gains in age. This dimension gives Him an omniscient perspective of our dimension within time. This is to say that God sees past, present, and future all at once. Whether this is true or not, we can only speculate, and I’m not sure exactly where or when scripture indicates this. However, if it is true, the implications are powerful and potentially life-changing.
If this is true, God does not see your life as you see it in first person, moving through space. If this is true, God does not see your life as I see it from a third person perspective, moving from point A to point B in a linear fashion. If this is true, God does not see your life like a movie where He stands by and takes notes about your comings and goings, your good deeds or sins.
If this is true, then God sees your life, God sees my life, like a painting. His infinity and our finity collide in an instant; in the blink of an eye. This painting is a collage of every thought, every experience, every temptation, every failure, every success, every tragedy, every sin, and every moment of goodness. Every detail of our life in full view like some nude waiting for a critic to judge worthy of hanging in a great hall of the masters or tossed in the trash like some worthless scribble.
The implications abound. We give so much power and authority to sin in our lives, but if God sees our lives like this, He already knows. He knew every instant of our lives before we were even a thought in our parents’ hearts. So let me ask some important questions:
What does this teach us about God’s Mercy and Grace?
What does this say about our fears and doubts?
What does this say about ours or anyone else’s salvation?
What does this suggest about what issues we give weight to in our culture?
To know that God saw these paintings before He started painting creation; to know that God saw these paintings before He sent His son; to know that God saw these paintings before He gave us His Word—this changes things.
This changes how we see our neighbors because God sees them better—He knows their beginning and their end and yet calls us to love them and put their needs before our own.
This changes how we see our family because God sees them better—He knows their beginning and their end and yet calls us to forgive them in spite of the pain they may have caused us.
This changes how we see our enemies because God sees them better—He knows their beginning and their end and yet calls us to love them like ourselves.
This changes how we see ourselves—He knows our beginning and our end and yet calls us His children.
If God saw my life like this, in paint, I would drown in shame. But the joy of my life, the freedom from shame, is knowing that when I accepted Jesus as my Savior He painted over my mess with His blood. He’s taken this hideous disaster of corrupted lines and miss-mixed colors and transformed it into a masterpiece; a splendid, panoramic, crimson sunset over my scribbles.
I John 3:20
19 And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.