Confessions of a Seminarian

God’s Story: An Artistic Representation (Panel 1)

You may have seen the header for this site change once again, this time showing a four stage depiction of a tree. This is the digital print of a massive painting done by David Arms, an artist from Franklin, TN. The painting was commissioned by Pastor Scotty Smith of Christ Community Church, as a fulfillment of seeing a dream of his come true. That dream was to have a single painting depicting the whole of “God’s Story, as it progressively unfolds in the Bible, history and in broken hearts.” We have thumb-nailed the picture (above) to be displayed on a new page because it is too large to fit here without losing important details.

This next multi-part series will divide Scotty Smith’s explanation of this incredible work of art. The full explanation and article can be found here, but for the sake of introducing this work of art to commentary and discussion, I will divide it up into 4 parts. Each part will be dedicated to a separate panel in the painting.

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“God’s Story comes to us as a redemptive drama in four parts.

Creation—when everything was as God meant it to be.

Fall—the tragic intrusion of sin and death, resulting in the pervasive brokenness of all people and everything God has made.

Redemption—God’s astonishing promise to redeem his fallen image-bearers and creation through the grace-full work of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Consummation—the magnificent fulfillment of God’s plan to gather and cherish a people forever, and to live with them in a more-than-restored world, called “the new heaven and new earth.”

Each panel of the painting presents one of the four interrelated parts of God’s Story, and each is replete with well chosen symbols. First you notice that a tree is the predominant image in each panel; each tree is tagged with an identifying word: life, loss, love, and again, life. Why was a tree chosen as the best symbol to tell God’s Story? When God first created mankind, he placed Adam and Eve in a garden paradise, called Eden. In the middle of the Garden was the tree of life, a clear statement and celebration of the fact that God is so very good and generous. It is from God that we receive life and it is from him that all blessings flow. However, the tree of life wasn’t placed in the center of the Garden just as a reminder of the goodness of God, but also of the “godness” of God. God is God, and we are not! The tree of life calls us to great gratitude and great humility.

Thus, in the first panel, depicting Creation, we see the tree of life standing tall and verdant. To the left David has painted three Black-capped Chickadees, whose cheerful disposition and life-giving call represent Adam and Eve, and all of creation, singing God’s praise. The pristine wonder of the beauty, truth and goodness of the first heaven and first earth compelled such a full-hearted full-voiced response. The prominent bright red apple in the upper right corner represents both God’s gracious provision and the loving prohibition he placed on Adam and Eve. As his trusted stewards and beloved image bearers, the first man and first woman were free to eat from the fruit of any tree in the Garden of Eden, except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Though the Bible never says the fruit of this tree was an apple, this notion became well-established legend. Whatever the fruit, death was the promised consequence for violating God’s boundary and clear warning. Listening to the enticing lies of the serpent, Eve and Adam chose to disregard God’s will, and the result was catastrophic. Sin and death entered their hearts and every sphere of God’s creation. As a result of the Fall, nothing remained as it was meant to be. Everything and everyone was broken. The first couple, who lived in shameless nakedness before God and one another, was now filled with fearful brokenness, perpetual hiddenness and blaming spitefulness.”