Revealing the Face of God
Nov 14, 2014 2232
Dante (centre) in Bargello’s fresco
Long ago, the famous portrait of Dante done by Bargello was lost. So a young artist was determined to try and find it. He investigated all the traditions and the one that seemed most likely to him was a certain tenement there in Italy, which was probably the place where the painting of the great poet had been done.
So he went to the room where tradition said that the painting had taken place but it was filled with lumber, sawdust, rubbish and all the walls were whitewashed.
He began by taking out the lumber and he took off all the whitewash, and to his joy and surprise underneath, colour began to appear, and soon the lost piece and the noble face of the ancient poet, Dante, was there.
People had not appreciated the face. It had not been destroyed; it had just been littered up. And I would suggest to you that the trouble in the world today is not that God isn’t here, but that God’s face is obscured.
The trouble with TV is not just the murders and the impurity; the trouble is the practice of the absence of God. That’s the worst thing about television. You can watch TV all day and all night and think there is no such being as God unless you are tuned into a religious program, which is rare.
The challenge for you and me in our daily lives is not to let the whitewash, the rubbish, and the litter, obscure the face of God. For that face is more wonderful, more joyous, more loving and more merciful than anything we could imagine.
– Des Ford. Rom 8:27–32 (from “Workers and Shirkers”)
Leave a Reply