ON PAINTING A PICTURE OF LOVE FOR OTHERS TO SEE

“Two Sisters” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir depicts the upper terrace of the Maison Fournaise, a family restaurant located on an island in the Seine in Chatou, the western suburb of Paris. Considered one of his most famous, the painting shows a young woman and her younger sister seated outdoors with a small basket containing balls of wool. In the background over the railings of the terrace, are flowering plants and vines. Beyond is the River Seine with its boats and also some buildings in the top left. Renoir painted this delightful scene as a homage to springtime in 1881. Before creating Two Sisters, Renoir worked in this particular location on another well-known painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party, seen at the conclusion of this post.

As a community of faith, one of the most serious charges that can be leveled is the claim that "Church People" are turned in on themselves. Christians are vulnerable in the extreme to such a charge because the Gospel preached is the Good News that God is a loving God who cares about all His human creatures. 

Ideally Christians are a People of God dedicated to a ministry of loving service to others. To whatever extent the charge is valid, it must be faced honestly and openly because any aspect of self-centeredness in the life of the Church is a flagrant denial of God's intention in founding it. Nothing could be more obvious.

Remember, the Lord Himself came as a man for others. The one thing about Jesus the early disciples found most difficult to accept was that He came not to be ministered unto but to minister to. (They didn't accept it, really, until after the Resurrection.) When Jesus began to tell them that as the Messiah, He was to be a servant -- a Suffering Servant -- that He was to suffer and die on behalf of others, the disciples were incredulous. 

Simon Peter, the Rock, the first to acknowledge Jesus as Messiah, said: "God forbid it; this is never going to happen to you! I mean, you're the Lord, you're the Messiah, you're not a servant!" And the one thing that we now find most challenging to accept is that, from the beginning, Christ intended for His followers to be a Servant People; that Christ intended for the Church to follow the course of His ministry of loving service.

As an illutration, the timeless paintings of the great French Impressionist, Auguste Renoir literally glow with life and light and color. Renoir seemed to put light inside the people he so beautifully portrayed on canvas. For the last 20 years or so of his life, Renoir was disabled with arthritis. His hands were twisted and gnarled; even his spine was affected to such an extent that he could not stand when he worked and needed assistance but still he produced amazing work that showed the light (beauty) in his subjects.

One day as a young art associate watched the elder painter work in his studio, fighting torturous pain with each brush stroke, he blurted out, “Auguste, why do you continue to paint when you are in such agony?” Renoir said, “The pain passes but the beauty remains.”

Just think, if we were to speak to Jesus on resurrection morning, He might have said the same thing. The pain of the Cross has passed, but the beauty remains: The beauty of new creation, the beauty of an army of disciples that spans the millennia, the beauty of a kingdom established in the hearts of his people, all this remains. 

But it may be that you are going through pain just now and you can’t see an end to that pain. Can you trust that out of the pain will come a beauty that will last forever? 

Why not give that pain over to your Heavenly maker and ask Him show you its beauty. You just might be surprised at the picture you have been failing to see.

In the end, to complete the circle, you can share that love(ly) beauty with others, just as God would have you do.

Get the picture, fellow Christians?