art and the bible

A friend came from Bucuresti a few days ago bearing great joy which in this case looked like books. A few were new ones--one I've been wanting to read since this spring, Snow by Orhan Pamuk. A couple were mine she was returning. One of those was probably the best non-fiction book I've ever read, one of my very favorite, a wonderful and little book called Art and the Bible by Francis Schaeffer.

I've been doing much more listening and reading these days, much less making art. I miss it. But it's been good to step back, too. I reread this book today (you can get through it in an hour and something) and thought I'd share some of the many many good quotes from it. You should read it though.

"They felt because I was interested in intellectual answers I must not be biblical. But this attitude represents a real poverty. It fails to understand that if Christianity is really true, it involves the whole man, including his intellect and creativeness. Christianity is not just 'dogmatically' true or 'doctrinally' true. Rather, it is true to what is there, true in the whole area to the whole man in all of life."

"So therefore the major theme is an optimism in the area of being; everything is not absurd, there is meaning. But most important, this optimism has a sufficient base. It isn't suspended two feet off the ground, but rests on the existence of the infinite-personal God who exists and who has a character and who has created all things, especially man in his own image...Man's dilemma is not just that he is finite and God is infinite, but that he is a sinner guilty before a holy God. But then he recognizes that God has given him a solution to this in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Man is fallen and flawed, but he is redeemable on the basis of Christ's work. This is beautiful. This is optimism. And this optimism has a sufficient base. Notice that the Christian and his art have a place for the minor theme because man is lost and abnormal and the Christian has his own defeatedness. There is not only victory and song in my life. But the Christian and his art don't end there. He goes on to the major theme because there is an optimistic answer."

"But God's creation--the mountains, the trees, the birds and the birds' song--are also non-religious art. Think about that. If God made the flowers, they also worth writing and painting about. If God made the birds, they are worth painting. If God made the sky, the sky is worth painting. If God made the ocean, indeed it's worth writing poetry about...The whole notion is rooted in the realization that Christianity is not just involved with 'salvation' but with the total man in the total world. The Christian message begins with the existence of God forever and then with creation. It does not begin with salvation. We must be thankful for salvation, but the Christian message is more than that."

(There are so many more but I figure this is enough for now.)

discoveries

Just discovered the mattress on the floor I've been sleeping on the last three months is actually a box spring. This explains so much.

Thankfully I have graduated to a pull-out couch (more like what we think of as a futon). All about perspective.

snow!

I mentioned something a few days ago about winter maybe having come--it has. Most of the southern part of the country got lots of wind and snow including us, but we were on the northern edge so half the time it was freezing rain and not as much wind. I've learned two new words through all this: viscol and lapovita, blizzard and sleet.

It's wonderful, though. I can hear the Colombian teasing me, saying the Southern in me has converted. Never ever! Just a handful of other cultures (and climates?) mixed in these days. An observation about a place that's used to snow: first, regarding life going on as usual, nothing closes. Back home, if it flurried even, all the schools closed and there were about two gallons of milk left in the whole grocery store. Here, if you ask whether X activity will still be taking place due to the weather, they laugh. In our defense, in my beautiful Wilmington we have hurricanes and other epic weather, and our campus floods pretty often. So what do we do? We paddle to class on surfboards, in kayaks/canoes and otherwise wade and swim our way about.

This snow-as-something-commonplace is still new enough to me to wonder in it, however. I like the smell of it, can remember it from the few times it's snowed back home. Something metallic. Like the way a penny tastes. Part of me wants to use the word tangy, but it's all wrong--but think the sharpness of citrus without all the tropical imagery.

And it's still there, still outside, hardly any of it melted away. I don't expect it will in the next few days, either, as the forecast says the high sometime next week will be -14C (that's -6.8F, friends--that is polar). But I've found when you finally learn how to dress for the cold (and the wind's not blowing) it's much more enjoyable. And speaking of, two more weeks and I will be on the mountain!

It's been a good month, a good start to the year. I am thankful for this, and so going to Rasnov is no longer appealing primarily because it's not Pitesti. There are lots of reasons I love being in Rasnov and I'm looking forward to going with those reasons in mind. Speaking of, I've got a lot more responsibility this go around and it's going to put me in front a lot more than I usually like (in Romanian, of course). So if you think about it, pray for me?

Now, off to attend to other things related to the snow... like figuring out what to do with my clothes hanging in the (sort-of enclosed) balcony which are currently frozen.