A Christian's Dream

A Christian’s Dream

I dreamed last night that I visited a museum. Fully taking up one wall of a large room was a collage of thumbnail images of a few churches, bibles, religious relics, but mostly images of people. People of all races, ages, religious traditions and economic statuses. People in homes, school, offices, farms, parks, hospitals and prisons. People in sprawling cities, rural areas and war-torn ruins. People working, praying, hugging, eating, sleeping, celebrating or grieving.

If the viewer walked to the back of the room, however, the face of Christ became evident as the composite of all the tiny images. I then realized that one message that the artist was conveying is that it is possible to get intently focused on doctrinal rigidity, or liturgical correctness, or biblical literalness, or sacramental validity, or moral exactitude, or membership in the "in-crowd." In doing so, one loses sight of the big picture: the face of Christ.