Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Which work of art...

...best exemplifies love?
In my opinion, it is a sculpture by Rodin called the Hand of God. It is as if this artist was gifted with the ability to take all of holy scripture and capture it in one frozen image.
I read once that sculptors think of their craft not so much as seeing what to add as they create something (as a painter adds paint to a canvas) but rather seeing what to take away. With that in mind, I think it is beautiful that this artist chose to have the hand of God resting on an unworked block...uncreated...as is God Himself. In His tenderly open hand (not clasping, but supporting) are the forms of a man and a woman, intertwined in an embrace that implies their one-flesh union, nude in a way that implies healthy vulnerability (a characteristic of nudity rarely lauded in our day.) But the greatest testament to love is what is above them: the same uncreated, unshaped block that is below God. The greatest gift of love: their awareness of a God who loves His creation and trusts them enough to let them also create. Who knows what can spring from such love?

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