I love art. Many people don’t know this about me, but I took some advanced placement art classes when in high school and was offered several scholarships to some prestigious art schools. But I didn’t take them because, well, artists don’t make money (we’ll discuss my insecurities and self-worth another time).
There are different views of art. Some look at Picasso or Warhol and just love it. That is not me. I’m more of a da Vinci and Michelangelo type person. I look for realism. “Modern” art just doesn’t float my boat. If someone hands me a picture they painted and tells me it’s a beautiful woman, it had better look like a woman. I don’t have time to stand there and wonder what the artist was thinking when they threw a bunch of paint onto a canvas and called it “woman on couch”.
That got me to thinking this morning as I was reading in I Corinthians 12:12 and it said, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”
Now, if you are a Picasso fan, please indulge me for a moment.

The world moves at a very fast pace these days. I’m on the edge of that generational gap that remembers life before computers, so life and information can even move faster than I’m comfortable with at times! With this fast-paced life those who are outside the church walls don’t have time to stop and contemplate what you are thinking when a pastor or fellow believer makes a negative comment or heavily critical toward non-believers (which is another one of my soapboxes, which we can discuss later). They don’t stop and say, “Well, they could be talking about X or Y.” No, they take it at face value – right or wrong.
Sometimes I wonder if the body of Christ looks more like a Picasso than da Vinci. People look at us from the outside and go, “Wow…” and not in a good way. They look at us and wonder what kind of monstrosity they are beholding.

And that leads us to how we live our personal lives as well. To our neighbors, what do you and your family look like to them? Do you exude the love of Christ, or do people look at you and see, well, a messed up painting that resembles nothing but a mess.

Mona Lisa

I’m not perfect. My family has its flaws. I live in a neighborhood where all my neighbors know us and know us well (better than we probably should sometimes). But I strive to have my life and my family resemble a beautiful painting that reflects the awesomeness of the creator and shows the love and care that was taken to restore me to my pre-fallen state.

I want my life to be the spiritual equivalent of the Mona Lisa.