Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

by Russ Ramsey

It is hard to render an honest self-portrait if we want to conceal what is unattractive and hide what’s broken. We want to appear beautiful. But when we do this, we hide what needs redemption—what we trust Christ to redeem. And everything redeemed by Christ becomes beautiful.

There is no statute of limitations for training our eyes to see beauty. Look around the space where you are right now, and no doubt you will find some.

In a very real sense not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do his work, to bear his glory. Madeleine L’Engle

Much of the architecture, clothing, technology, and even skin tones of biblical characters—Jesus included—looked European to emphasize that the story of Scripture applied to people in their context. Depicting Jesus as he actually was—a Middle Eastern, dark-skinned Jew—wasn’t a value at that time because the goal of art wasn’t historical accuracy; it was accessibility.