You don’t have to be an artist to really appreciate art, and I would be named in that number. I’m not an artist, but if we could go together to the Louvre in Paris, we would see works of art that are famous and yes, they’ve earned their fame, like the Mona Lisa. But you go to the Sistine Chapel and those are not individual stories depicted upon the roof there.
It begins with Adam, and then you have Noah and Moses all the way to David. It’s one story from creation to the kingdom. Now, I call that the upper story. You’re looking up. Then, we have our individual stories, like those in the Louvre. I want you to think about something this Easter: the upper story of God and our lower stories came together when God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. He lived among us. He became one of us.
Of course, we know the story of His crucifixion, His resurrection that we’ll be celebrating, and His ascension, and now He’s at the right hand of the throne of God. And sometimes we have these personal stories, our lower story. We’re going through tragedy, like some I know, perhaps some of you. There’s an upper story. Just ask Joseph in the Old Testament. His brothers meant harm to him, but God worked it out because he is the Author of the upper story. And the other Joseph, well, he had to learn about his betrothed, soon-to-be wife named Mary. And it was perplexing, you can imagine that. But God was at work in the upper story to bring life to his lower story.
That, I think, is a message for Resurrection Sunday, Easter. We should never forget the upper story, and when we’re going through the ups and downs of life, let us thank God that what is happening now is not the beginning nor the end of the story because the upper story always wins out. Jesus is risen.
