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Besides being part of God’s faithful, ongoing fulfillment of God’s promise to make Abram a great nation and bless all the peoples on the earth through him, the birth of Jacob and Esau was also an answer to Isaac’s prayer for children through his wife Rebekah.  Though from the same womb, these twins represent two nations that would be divided.  Despite their sins and mistakes, God was sovereignly threading the very different timelines of their lives according to His plan. The same is true for our lives.

Inspired by Genesis 24

Just as Abraham followed the Lord God and became part of His beautiful story, so Rebekah did the same. She followed Abraham’s servant back to Canaan to be married to a man she had never met. She trusted that this was where she needed to be. As later chapters will show, Rebekah had a flawed heart; she manipulates and betrays. Even through that, God was able to take her broken and sinful heart and use it to fulfill his will and continue his story of redemption. What he did thousands of years ago, he continues to do with us today.

inspired by Genesis 23:1-20

“Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, “I am a foreigner and stranger among you…”” This is a picture of Abraham in a foreign land having just lost his wife. Abraham’s life is full of trials and hard times, but through all of those situations Abraham had God’s promises to lean on. It is encouraging to know that even in the pit of despair God’s promises are still true and he is still sovereign.

Here is a family portrait of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac. Sarah is laughing. Not because of a joke, but because she found it hard to believe she would bare Abraham a child at such an old age.  God promised Sarah that she would give Abraham a child, In response, Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”

On Pastor Daniel Montgomery’s recent post “Our Vision for the Arts“, Ryan Broadhurst shared a quote worth reflecting on….

“When art comes to terms with both the wounds of the world and the promise of resurrection and learns how to express and respond to both at once, we will on the way to a fresh vision, a fresh mission.” – NT Wright, in Surprised by Hope

It seems that many artistic mediums accomplish this, when at their best.

In literature, Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead at once deals with getting old and sick, along with savoring physical life while hoping for the resurrection.  The main character John Ames reflects in a letter to be given to his son after his death, “I enjoy the hope that when we meet I will not be estranged from you by all the oddnesses life has carved into me.”  He deals with wounds graciously as he bears in mind the promise of resurrection.

In film, last year’s Tree of Life seems to accomplish NT Wright’s vision.  It gets a good head start on the first line of the trailer: “There are two ways through life – The way of nature and the way of grace.”  It deals simultaneously with the death of a child and the glories of childhood; emotional turmoil and heavenly light; the cosmos full of violence, and the mystery and hope of eternity.

Valley Maker

In music, the best songwriters don’t seem to have too much trouble putting the wounds of the world and the promise of resurrection side by side.  Of course the best hymns do that, but even contemporary music does this.  On my current list of favorites is Valley Maker.  By retelling the stories found in Genesis, Valley Maker’s songs bring out the humanity of Adam, Eve, and the rest so clearly against God’s divine nature.

But then thinking about visual art, examples seem less readily available.  This is probably because visual art is typically less narrative, but still…

by Hin Chua

In photography for example, it’s much easier to reflect upon the wounds of the world than it is the promise of resurrection.  I recently came across Hin Chua’s fantastic series of photographs “After the Fall.” As the title states, these images are largely about the time after sin entered the world, but they’re only interesting because they also call to mind the wonder of Eden.  The above image reminds me of Adam, maybe caught at the moment as he’s expelled from the garden.  These images deal with “the wounds of the world” in human and environmental terms, and they recall something of God’s original creation.  There’s a longing for Eden present here, but I don’t think I see the promise of resurrection in them.

Jeremy Begbie has given a talk titled “Subversive Hope” in which he uses the above image of a sculpture by Mozambican artists, also called “Tree of Life.” It’s a sculpture of a tree composed of decommissioned weapons.  This sculpture might be the most straight forward example of visual art dealing with both the “wounds of the world and the promise of resurrection.”  It moves past the wounds of the world toward that hope and promise of a world made fully right by Christ.

Can you think of other visual art examples?

Or can you think of ways your own art might deal with both hard realities of life on earth and the hope of eternal glory?

“And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.” – Genesis 19:27-28

Just hours before he saw the cities in ruins, Abraham had stood before the Lord to intercede for Sodom. He had asked the Lord to spare the city if only 10 righteous people could be found. But the Lord did not find 10 righteous people. In fact, he found no one righteous. Abraham failed as a high priest. He could not save these people. He could not make them righteous. Knowing that Abraham could not be the high priest that humanity needed, God would eventually send us the true high priest who would indeed make his people righteous and save them.

A 99 year old man was offered the deal of a life time: a deal initiated by God, but not void of human responsibility.

God made an eternal promise of land and a lineage of kings.

Kings wear crowns, but King Jesus, born of Abraham, gave up his crown of gold for a crown of thorns.

“He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” – Genesis 15:5

At any given time there are less than 2,000 stars visible to the unaided eye in the night sky. By now, Abraham has had a lot more than 2,000 descendants, especially if you count all of us in Christ who have been “grafted in” to his family tree. God’s blessing goes over and above even his lavish promises.

Inspired by Genesis 12:1-9

Cities are overwhelming when you are not familiar with them.  Sometimes people are hostile.  You might not know or understand the culture.  You may not even know the language, but you know you’ve been sent by God.  His promise to you is that this land will be the land of your descendants.  You will be a blessing to this land and your name will be great.  All you have to do is obey God.  How would you respond?

This image illustrates the Tower of Babel story by showing a mix of languages in speech bubbles and showing a sketch of a tower-like image in the center of the design. The whole thing is created on and in an old book and of course books are about language. The word ‘Esperanto’ shows up numerous times. Esperanto is a language created in the early 20th century in an attempt to make a politically neutral, world-unifying language. Of course, not that many people speak it and we’re still separated by languages.