"Where all the windows are doors...."

I don't mean to post this so quickly after Scott's beautiful piece below. I had been writing bits and pieces of my following thoughts all week, and was about to delete them before I read Scott's words. But now.... Be sure to scroll down and read his first. I think there's a connection.

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You know, I'm not very good at giving recaps of events or conversations. This said, let me thank Julie & Steve for hosting a truly wonder-ful evening of food and conversation before I now indulge a weakness of mine by pursuing just a particular tangent of our most recent Tuesday night conversation, for what it's worth:

We experience and understand the world through symbols. Paintings, photos, candles on a birthday cake, church steeples, report cards, stories, handshakes, videos dramatizing songs, the songs themselves, the words that make up the songs....all are symbolic of greater meaning. Effectively using a symbol to communicate (think of the written word 'smile' for example) is like presenting a small door into a huge cavernous space beyond (the space of what it actually is and feels like to smile). It's exciting and a little bit terrifying. While religion focusses on the door--a beautiful one though it may be--relationship accepts the invitation to enter in. It is risky, to walk beyond the threshold of what can be too easily known.

Jesus taught by parables. "All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak." (Matthew 13:34) Parables are symbols, metaphors, stories that stand for greater, richer, deeper truths. Jesus himself was a symbol, a sign of God's love for us. His name (we spoke of the significance of names Tuesday night) means "God with us". And yet....Jesus was more than a symbol, he WAS God with us.

The living, breathing Word - by being just that! - bridged the gap between knowing God with our heads and knowing Him with our hearts. And if we were living in the experiencial, relational, totally-expansive-beyond-the-little-door, heart's knowlege of God, I mean REALLY living, I think we'd experience a mind blowing breakthrough in our perception of the world. Suddenly our handshakes would mean much more than social convention. We would be more care-ful in how we would call each other whether by proper name, by role, or by judgement, be it "friend", "crazy", "bum", or "those people who....". What do these 'names' really mean, anyway? Suddenly, we would 'see' a song beyond the blindfold of what a friend, a pastor, or a critic says we should believe about it. Who said U2 couldn't create a liturgical soundtrack? Just as Steve and Julie experienced, we would see songs not limited to the safe distance of their dramatized videos, but powerful enough to take form and sit right down in the pews with us. This is what Christ did: "The Word became flesh and moved into the 'hood." When we live this truth and know this truth, we paint our paintings, write our songs, dance our dances, and say our prayers not for our own 'warm-fuzzies' or for our artists' egos, but because we KNOW that our created things can effectively communicate GOD if they have become dwelling places in which to experience Him. Every word, every deed, every thought should be crushed and then re-created under this grace. It's risky and challenging--and I fail miserably and beautifully at it many times a day! God knows this and sends His love to me anyway. Selah.

Augustine spoke of all creation as pointing him to God the Maker. Created things (you and I included) are symbolic, parables that can be doors or windows to deeper understanding. As I mentioned the other night, God is opening up windows of understanding to me as I paint with Him. He's showing me how to view the chaos and colors of the world from my interior resting place in Him by looking through the Cross, through Christ, in the same way that I look through the intersecting panes on a window. The cross was never meant to be separate from the world, never meant to be just an abstract symbol, a pretty pattern on a painting. The cross was meant to give access to the fullness of life, the experience of all its colors pushing and pulling against each other to create one beautiful composition. Christ took on flesh, took on these colors of chaos to re-create order, to provide a frame of reference.



You know the saying, "Can't see the forest for the trees"? Well, beware of not seeing the view for the window panes. Thank you, Scott, for the window of your words, for your parable. That's a river seen through the window above.... Thank you for launching us down that river, daring us to experience it with you, with each other.