Today I came across this fabulous quote from painter Chuck Close -
"I discovered about 150 dots is the minimum number of dots to make a specific recognizable person. You can make something that looks like a head, with fewer dots, but you won't be able to give much information about who it is. " - Chuck Close
If you've ever seen Chuck's work in real life you know how truly stunning it can be. To stand 20 meters from a Chuck Close painting will amaze you, but to stand 6 inches from it will drive you to truly ponder the astounding depth of his gifting and how he translates it onto canvas. His work is largely composed of smaller "dots" or other types of minor markings, that at a distance blend into a tapestry of amazing detail and accuracy in representation of his subjects. If you've never stood before one, stop what you are doing immediately and drive to the closest museum that features one to check it out. (and trust me, pictures of his work online just cannot compare to standing before the real deal!)
Anyways, this quote made me immediately ponder each of us and those we encounter in life. How many times we think we truly know someone and yet we don't really know much about them at all. Or vice versa. Sometimes we can grow up in a parent/child relationship and still not know one another, or maybe we do or have lived with a spouse that we don't really intimately know. Sometimes folks we feel are friends are really not as close as we might think. Or others may be far more devoted than we even imagine. Sometimes we can realize that our impressions of people are completely wrong, built on assumptions, past experiences, hopes, fears, expectations (realistic or unrealistic), ignorance, guilt, shame, love, lust, desperation, you name it. We sometimes see each other in less than the 150 dots. Vague, blurry images of one another that we tell ourselves are accurate. Sometimes we choose to distance ourselves from others. The safety in not really being intimately known keeps us from possibly experiencing pain or risking vulnerability. Like a Chuck Close painting, when seen from up close we may not be as attractive as from far away. We may be far rougher and less polished. Less the perfect tapestry that others perceive when they don't know us well.
I have high-definition television at home. It's interesting because I get many of the same channels in both regular television and high-definition. I sometimes like to flip between the two. It's interesting to see the same news anchor in the soft blurry halo of regular TV and then in the crispness of high-def, where every wrinkle, freckle, scar and beauty mark shows. I imagine some of these anchors wish they weren't seen in such detail. We are after all, most of us, interested in some respect as to how others see us. But you know what? I still prefer the high-definition. I prefer seeing the real and the true nature of things, warts and all. I think we all do. Because that's what we relate to.
I think of the "higher-definition" that God must see us in. The omnipotent, omnipresent God, who knows every thought, every heartbeat, every hair on our head. Every tear that we cry. Every wrong we have done. Every good deed we have endeavored to do. He reads our mind, knows our heart, witnesses our deeds and foresees our future. The depth of His knowledge of us is incomprehensible to me. And most amazing of all, yet He chose us before we chose Him.
Have you ever seen the difference in quality of early photographs of the universe from the ones we are capable of taking now? We can now take bright, vibrant, sharp pictures of planets at the edge of our galazy, and we've even recently had our first glimpses of planets in a galaxy outside our own. Compare that to the grainy black and white images of the late fifties in which planets are hardly decipherable. My how far we have come in such a short time! And the more we discover, the more we realize that we do not know.
Now imagine the depths of the one that formed the Universe. How amazing that we understand virtually nothing of His creation, let alone Himself. And to think that one day we will see Him and know Him so much more clearly. How stunning that will be!
Scripture says, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. " I Corinthians 13:12
I'm not sure about you, but I'm waiting for a Higher-Definition experience!
