God’s Story: An Artistic Representation (Panel 2)
Here is the section concerning the second panel of the painting, titled “Loss” (The Fall). Is anyone else just amazed with the symbolism in this painting? Incredible…. This is a shorter panel, but the next couple will rock your world.
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In the second panel, the haunting ashen hues underscore the polluting, alienating and destructive effects of sin. To depict the tragedy of the Fall, David placed a starkly barren “tree of loss” (note the tag) beneath the level of the tree of life in the first panel. Creation’s clear sky is gone, and now the heavens are heavy with dark clouds. The grating screech of two ravens, perched on the horizon, overtakes the invigorating song of the Chickadees. One of these “life-swallowing” scavengers looks back at the Creation glory lost in the Fall. The other looks ahead, suggesting that the Fall will not be the final chapter in God’s story.
Ravens appear in the Biblical narrative, and the history of literature, in two distinct ways. These ominous black birds are often used as a symbol of death and God’s judgment (Isaiah 34), but ravens also appear in God’s Story as a sign of provision in times of need. The prophet Elijah was miraculously fed by ravens in the wilderness (I Kings 17:1-6). Jesus called his anxious followers to see in ravens an example of God’s faithfulness to care for them, for they are of much greater worth than birds (Luke 12:22-24). The raven looking to the right draws our attention to the third frame.
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