It is a large painting, measuring 3.63m x 4.37m.
The curators soon realised it was too big for the wall it was intended to be hung on.
So instead of re-thinking where to hang it, they simply decided to cut the painting down on all four sides to make it fit — losing two of the painting’s characters in the process.
Is that what we do to God?
Cutting him down to size, reshaping him according to what works best for us.
That’s one reason why God says, ‘‘not to make carved images’’ (Deut 5:8).
The great sin was not that his people were necessarily creating other gods, but that these images could never properly represent all of who God was.
Author Tim Keller says, ‘‘Any carved image attempting to depict God would only ever reveal part of God’s nature but conceal another part’’.
It’s what we do when we pick and choose attributes of God in order to create a ‘god’ who is palatable to us. A God that fits our preferences.
For example, when we sin, we want a loving, compassionate, forgiving God. Not a God of holiness, punishment or judgement.
When we are in a difficult situation, we want a God who is powerful and close by to get us out unscathed; but when things are going well, we want a God who is distant and uninvolved, to let us live our own life.
We need to have a correct view of God — as revealed in the Bible.
We need to worship him as he is, not as we want him to be.
And Jesus is a good place to start.
The Bible says, that Jesus himself is the ‘‘exact representation’’ of God (Heb 1:3) and the ‘‘image of the invisible God’’ (Col:15).
~ Contributed by Pastor Chris Taylor of Deniliquin Baptist Church, on behalf of the Combined Churches of Deniliquin
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