Wednesday, February 01, 2012

thinking about this...

This past Sunday I found myself spending time looking through a website called barewalls.com.  A site where you can find all sorts of different paintings or magazine covers.  I recently began reading a book by Henri Nouwen titled The Return of the Prodigal Son that stems from a fascination he had with Rembrandt's masterpiece named the same as the book.  I am only a few chapters in, but Nouwen shares the lessons he personally learned as he pursued the truths within this story that is so small considering the breadth of the Bible.

My time on barewalls.com though was not entirely spent on that masterpiece though.  I decided to find other works by Rembrandt because I am finding his work intriguing.  Intriguing is almost too light of a word.  As I saw the different works, I was drawn in.  Many of them were tied to scripture, to Jesus and his death, but the one I was fascinated by, was the one below.  I saw names of Abraham's Sacrifice,  Abraham and Isaac, and the Sacrifice of Isaac.  I still don't know what it is officially called.

Many thoughts came to my mind as I got lost in this image.  I am not sure exactly how much time passed, 20 minutes perhaps, but I could not draw myself away.

Here is what I wrote a friend shortly after discovering this work, "the angel of God pulling back Abraham's hand that was yielding the unsheathed knife while the other exposed the neck of the one who could bear the promise that God had given him.  That obedience, that faith, it just stirs something inside of me that I cannot take my eyes away from."

I have thought about this painting more and more over the last few days.  I hope someday to own a copy, and to study it and meditate on what God is truly teaching us here.  It is more than just obedience and faith, because those are only surface words to describe Abraham's actions here.  There is Isaac as well, and the love his father has for him.  The pain that must have been felt as he unsheathed his knife indicated by the way that Abraham held his son's face so that there is no eye contact possible.

He was going to do it.  He was going to offer his son as a sacrifice to his Creator.  The trajectory of the knife's path as it is falling in comparison to the position of his hand shows that he was in motion.  This painting makes it seem that he was in the act of sacrificing his son.

No, obedience and faith are too light of words for what this is...but I cannot choose the correct ones either...

And then there is this simple question...what should my response be in light of this truth?

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