I was just laying on the couch enjoying a relaxing moment while Elliana was napping and Nya was finishing her bath with Daddy. I’m a woman and don’t have a “nothing box” (those of you who’ve watched “Laughing Your Way To A Better Marriage” know what I’m talking about), so my mind does not shut off even when I desperately want it to. So, I was looking at my favorite painting which hangs on the wall in our living room. I have loved this painting since I saw it in the “Burlington Coat Factory Art Gallery” for the high price of $80… definitely worth such a high price. Anyways, this painting has been the source of more than a few conversations between Ty and I. A typical conversation might go something like this:

Niki: “This painting just makes me so happy!”
Ty: “Doesn’t it bother you that it’s not realistic?”
Niki: “What’s not realistic about it?”
Ty: “The shadows are all wrong. They’re impossible.” He would then go onto explain exactly why the sun could not possibly cast the shadows in multiple directions as shown in the painting. Niki: “Who cares, it makes me happy and that’s all that matters.”

So as I was laying on the couch I stared at this painting wanting desperately to figure out how it just might be possible for this painting to be accurate (after-all don’t most artists study these types of things prior to venturing into creating such high-end pieces as one might find at Burlington Coat Factory?) I tried to imagine that maybe there were buildings unseen that distorted the shadows or caused them to be seen the way they are in the painting. But as I laid there examining it carefully I finally had to conclude as Ty had done 7 years ago that “it’s just not realistic”.

I want this painting to be accurate because it makes me happy. It’s filled with sunlight coming from all different directions and who doesn’t like lots of sunshine? It’s enchanting and inviting to me. But, the bottom line is, it’s not realistic and that’s a fact.

Is it possible that in some ways we do the same thing with our view of Jesus… God… Heaven … Salvation … the Holy Spirit? We want to make them work the way WE want them to. Sometimes we can paint our own pictures of what Truth is. The problem is we don’t get all the angles right and the shadows fall in unrealistic places. The Reality stays the same. God does not change and has not changed since the creation of the world. We are allowed to paint a picture that “just makes us happy” (just as the artist who painted this wonderful scene was allowed to do), but in the end we’ll eventually come to terms with the fact that it just isn’t accurate.

I’ve looked at this picture and felt happy thousands of times. So why today does it occur to me that if it’s not realistic then it just doesn’t do the same thing for me any more? Who knows. But God does the same thing in our lives some times, doesn’t He? We’re going along our merry way and then something begins to shake our world and we all of a sudden get it. For me, I’d rather walk through this earthly life living in the Truth (even though it’s not as pretty sometimes) then to walk through it naively believing whatever makes me happy at the time.