Perspective: Mess or Masterpiece?

In the movie Clueless, Tai asks, "What's a Monet?" And the budding young art historian Cher responds, "It’s like a painting, see? From far away, it’s OK, but up close, it’s a big old mess."

Georges Seurat took the messy form even further, blending art, the science of optics, and color theory into neo-impressionist forms of pointillism or-- as he preferred to characterize it-- chromoluminarism.

Up close, it's a mess of dots.
Step back a few paces and the picture comes into view as the eye optically mixes the colored dots into new colors.


And step back further to get the complete picture.


Mess or masterpiece? Perspective makes all the difference. And that holds true when we face mess in our community life, as well. The Church-- the Body of Christ-- the Family of God-- is composed of a bunch of dots all jumbled up together. And it often looks like a complete mess. And yet when God is holding the brush, the mess somehow transforms into a masterpiece.

When we encounter mess in our small groups, ministries, Sunday School classes, places of community life in our churches, the first thing we need to remember is perspective. How does God view the situation? What might He allow to emerge from the mess? Perspective can transform the scattered fragments of our lives from mess to masterpiece.

** Oh yeah, and I checked off another life goal today. Got to see Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte up close...and a few paces back...for real in person.