The Mosaic

As I’ve done more and more reading in the Bible, I’ve learned more “dots.” There have been so many things I “learned” in the past that made absolutely no sense. The biggest thing lately is that context matters. Much of the confusion from my earlier years came from lack of context.

For instance, the moment Jesus died, the Bible tells us, the curtain in the temple tore from top to bottom. For so many years that dot was a simple factoid without much relevance. “So what?” I thought. A curtain tore. Big deal. That’s what lack of context does.

Later I learned the context. That “curtain” was not a simple gauze sheet. It wasn’t even a piece of fabric hanging from a curtain rod like in my house. It was thick. Really thick. Untearably thick. And it was hung there to keep people out of the Holy of Holies in the temple. That’s the place where only on one day every year only one priest could go hang out with God. Anyone else, on any other day, trying to get in would be a fatal mistake.

So the fact it was torn meant there was no longer a barrier between God and mankind. That it was torn at all is a miracle – it was that thick. That it was torn from the top to the bottom said it was God doing this thing, not humanity.

Context. I was missing that for decades.

I think Americans in general lack context when they consider Christianity. They see a dot, disagree with that dot, and reject the totality of what that faith really is. There are a LOT of dots, and if someone would stand back and look at the whole mosaic they’d be amazed.

The majestic, sweeping artistry of the Bible is awe inspiring. The whole thing points to one event in the totality of the universe. Everything in the old testament is preamble. Everything in the new testament is epilogue. Our existence was planned.

We need to stop focusing on the individual dots until we see the canvas as a whole, complete, awesome painting that would put Seurat to shame. Once that happens we can start zooming in on certain portions of that art work, and see the technique of the pointillism of the Word of God.